We had a successful benefits retiree forum meeting on May 30th at Pine View Baptist Church. We had 123 UH Retirees attend. Mr. Jack Long, our attorney, discussed with our group the conference call held on May 16th between the federal judge in charge of our case, Randy Hall, our attorney, Mr Long, Robert Taylor, Ken Sweatman, Debra Mangum and the Piedmont attorneys. A recent case brief filing by our attorney addressed the forced change to the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan. Starting 1/1/2021, existing retirees and new retirees were not offered a Medicare product choice but were directed into the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan. University Hospital had promised to pay for a Medicare Supplement upon reaching age 65 with 30+ years of continuous service not a Medicare Advantage Plan. During the conference call the judge awarded the plaintiffs (us) Article 3 Standing (in Georgia) and Judge Hall wanted to know, if given a choice, would the qualifying UH Retirees now on the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan would choose to have the AARP United Healthcare Medicare Supplement Plan instead of the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan. We were given to the end of June to submit this information to him and add additional plaintiffs to the case. Other than our requested response filing, the judge requested no additional legal filings be made by the lawyers. Some of our group have had a good experience with Aetna and would choose to stay in that plan. Some have not, or based on their medical needs, if given the choice, would choose to change to the AARP Medicare supplement plan. To help retirees better understand the differences between a Medicare supplement policy compared to Medicare Advantage products, we had independent insurance specialists present to the group at the called forum.
Key components and differences between the Aetna Medicare advantage plan and Medicare Supplement are:
· Aetna Medicare Advantage is a network plan with fewer Medicare providers (physicians/hospitals/other health facilities) than a Medicare supplement plan that consists of all providers that accept medicare and the approved list of in-network providers and facilities change from year to year. With a Medicare Supplement you can go to any doctor or facility that accepts Medicare.
· Aetna Medicare Advantage is a managed care plan where case management takes place by review of medical necessity so some tests, procedure, surgeries require pre-approval. A Medicare supplement does not require those pre-approvals.
· The Aetna Medicare Advantage plan includes a prescription drug plan. With a Medicare Supplement Plan, you purchase a separate drug plan (called Medicare Part D) that fits you best for that year.
· The per person cost that Piedmont pays for each retiree is about $80 for the Aetna plan is substantially less than the what they would have to pay for a Medicare supplement which would cost them about $150 per month.
· The AARP plan (also called as a Medigap plan) is defined as a Plan N with coverage co-pays and limits defined by Medicare.
We gathered the preference from all of the group that attended the meeting. For the next week, we reached out to almost all of the retirees by email and phone who could not attend the meeting to ask their choice. We were able to reach all but about 17 retirees on the lawsuit. June 18th, Mr. Long filed this information to the court for Judge Hall to review along with an addendum adding additional qualifying retirees to the lawsuit. 41 UH Retirees joined the lawsuit, so with the original 174 UH Retirees, we are now at 215 retirees as of today.
It is important to understand that the judge asking for the retiree preference for whether to stay on Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan or change to the United Health Care AARP Supplement does not mean we have won the case yet and it does not mean anything is currently changing with the plan the hospital is paying for you. For now, until, we have a decision from Judge Hall, your plan whether it is the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan or the United Health Care AARP Supplement stays the same.
With this filing to Judge Hall on June 18th, we now wait for his review, further action and/or decision.
