Thursday, December 18, 2025

Time Well Spent

Taking time to manage your benefits claims can lead to a productive and rewarding experience

By Crystal VanderSchaaf, Western Benefits Plan Manager

It was an otherwise normal morning, booting up my computer and getting ready for another workday. Technology is a wonderful thing when it works as expected and allows us to feel productive.

Unfortunately, things went downhill when an error message repeatedly popped up. One of my monitors started flashing, and programs were very slow to load. What was going on in my otherwise normal, productive day? I applied all of the suggested troubleshooting steps I could, and was confident that if I needed help, I could call CLAC’s IT Team.

Some 35 minutes later, my computer and systems were functioning again. I felt behind on what I had been planning to do, but the steps I followed brought me back into a better, more productive state. Sometimes, detours to our daily routines are necessary and can be more important than what was originally expected.

I am very thankful to CLAC’s IT wizards and for specialists in other areas that keep us productive.

The experience, though, made me wonder if CLAC members ever feel that navigating their benefits coverage takes away from an otherwise normal productive day. Picking up a prescription, going to the dentist, submitting a claim online, or navigating myCLAC can be confusing and lead to frustrations. It takes time and likely it’s often not planned. What do you mean that my prescription was denied because of a prior authorization process, a conditional formulary issue, or a generic substitution rule? Why wasn’t my dental checkup fully covered if I have 100 percent coverage?

Just like the IT Team was available to help me, the CLAC Benefits Team is here to help members. From access to myBenefits on myCLAC to making a claim online to helping pharmacists, dentists, or healthcare providers submit a claim, we do our best to help and to get members back to their regular day. We realize that while these tasks may seem like distractions, they’re immensely important.

Revered missionary worker Mother Theresa advised, “Do small things with great love.” And famous author and educator Helen Keller wrote, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

If submitting benefits claims or trying to solve an issue with your benefits coverage is on your to-do list, or it’s something you are putting off because it doesn’t fit into your busy plans, I’d suggest jumping in and using the CLAC Benefits Team as your safety net. Not only will you get back to your productive day, you will have accomplished something for yourself or your family as well.

Like with my computer issues, your productivity may have been interrupted and your day thrown off. But the satisfaction of taking care of it is well worth it, knowing that we are here to help.

Time Well Spent

You might be interested in