UH Retiree Lawsuit member:
The Interrogatory and Discovery Phase of our lawsuit allows us the request documents and communications from UHCS and Piedmont related the retiree medical supplement benefit which we have done. But it also means they can request the same from us and they have.
1st: We are duty bound to pass the request on to you as it was submitted. It will be provided at the Forum meeting.
It is written in “legalese” and will seem overwhelming to some of you.
2nd: We only have 2 weeks to get a response back from all 238 of us to submit them by the deadline. If each person does not make a “good faith effort” to submit a response, Piedmont could petition the judge to have you removed from the case.
3rd: The Benefits Task Force has scheduled a meeting for Thursday, February 5th at 2pm at Pineview Baptist Church, 119 Pleasant Home Rd, Augusta, GA 30907. Our lawyer, Mr. Long, will be there to help explain and answer questions.
4th: We are putting together a form to streamline and help you complete the responses and will have it there for you to use.
5th: If you have any of the the following Items, bring them with you. If you have the ability to copy them do and bring the copies. If you don’t, bring the originals.
a. You current medical insurance card (s)
b. Any letters from Piedmont to you talking about the retiree medical plan.
c. Any letters from Capital Head (now Acrisure), Russell Head, Carla James about the conference calls back in 2019 about switching from UHC to Aetna Medicare Advantage.
d. Any sheets you had from Carla James where she wrote the word “free” on how much you would pay for your retiree Medicare Supplement.
e. Any UH Retiree Benefit Rate Sheets for any years which had in the bottom left corner a box that said “Retirees of UH with 30 or more years of continuous service at retirement incur no cost for this benefit.”
f. Any of the yearly University Hospital Retiree Benefits Summary booklets we were given each year.
g. Any letters from Aetna Medicare Advantage denying coverage/approval or requiring you to do something before they would approve a service.
6th: The parking at Pineview is more limited than in the past so anyone you can car pool to come with will help.
Do not let this stress you. What you have, you have. What you don’t, you don’t.
Robin Petry,
UH Retiree Task Force Member
706-836-3027
