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16 / August 2021 / Scotts Valley Times www.tpgonlinedaily.com
COMMUNITY NEWS
Second Harvest CEO Retiring
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n July 22, Second Harvest Food Bank ation of Food Banks from 1995-98, Elliott-McCrea Santa Cruz County announced CEO shaped the future of food banks across the state. Willy Elliott-McCrea will retire next June. Most recently, he led the Food Bank through The board of directors has started the COVID-19 and the devastating CZU fire. His process to hire his successor and build on his experience led him to reach out to U.S. Rep. legacy. Jimmy Panetta as soon as shelter-in-place was His retirement will coincide with the food ordered, prompting Congress and the Governor bank’s 50th anniversary, and a big shindig is to deploy the National Guard across California planned to celebrate both. food banks to keep services going. Elliott-McCrea, 68, of Soquel, Since the pandemic began, has been the Food Bank’s leader for Second Harvest has seen need for more than 30 years, making many sigfood double — and met that need. Second Harvest worked with not only nificant contributions during floods, the National Guard but also County fires and a global pandemic. Emergency Services, Twin Lakes After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthChurch, County Fairgrounds, Santa quake, Second Harvest was ground Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Community zero for disaster relief (epicenter was five miles from the warehouse) – Willy Elliott-McCrea Foundation Santa Cruz County, local scaling services six-fold for the first month and school districts and many others to provide fresh doubled after. and healthy food to the community. Building a strong network of partners from As Santa Cruz County slowly recovers every sector of the community, Second Harvest from the economic devastation of the pandemic has consistently ranked in the top two percent and fires, the food bank is distributing 65% more of healthiest food banks in America, with more food than before. than 60% of food distributed being fresh fruits Elliott-McCrea began his food banking and vegetables. career in 1978 as a warehouse manager and As founding president of California Associ- driver. n
Dignity, Anthem Talks Break Down
Editor’s note: People with Anthem health insurance who see doctors at Dignity Health and Dominican Hospital are caught in the middle as talks on a new contract broke down mid-July. How are you affected? Email Editor Jondi Gumz at info@cyber-times.com. Put Anthem-Dignity in the subject line. Each side put out statements, appearing here in abbreviated fashion. ••• Robert Quinn, MD, president/CEO, Dignity Health Medical Foundation ignity Health and Anthem Blue Cross have been negotiating new contracts
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in good faith for six months. Despite our collective efforts, most of Dignity Health’s California agreements with Anthem terminated as of July 16. “We remain in active discussions and hope to reach a responsible new agreement soon that will protect patients’ access to the care they need. “Dignity/Anthem Split” page 18
Anthem, Sutter Health Extend Contract
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nthem and Sutter Health have reached agreement on a multi-year extension to their previous contract, set to expire in 18 months. This provides Anthem members with continued innetwork access to Sutter facilities through Dec. 31, 2024. “We are pleased to continue working with Sutter to make healthcare simpler and more accessible,” said John Pickett, Anthem’s regional vice president of provider solutions. “We value the relationships we have with the providers in our network, which are important to creating choices for
our consumers and fulfilling our mission of improving the lives of the people in the communities we serve.” “We are pleased to partner with Anthem in their expanded portfolio of networks and products as it will give our Sutter patients stability and access to our integrated network for years to come,” said Grace Davis, Sutter’s chief public affairs officer. This agreement applies to Anthem Blue Cross consumers enrolled in MediCal, HMO and PPO plans. n
