{"id":385,"date":"2024-06-22T16:53:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-22T21:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/?p=385"},"modified":"2024-06-22T16:53:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-22T21:53:27","slug":"court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">We had a successful benefits retiree forum meeting on May 30<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0at Pine View Baptist Church. We had 123 UH Retirees attend.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0Starting 1\/1\/2021, existing retirees and new retirees were not offered a Medicare product choice but were directed into the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan.\u00a0\u00a0University Hospital had promised to pay for a Medicare Supplement upon reaching age 65 with 30+ years of continuous service not a Medicare Advantage Plan.\u00a0During 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\u00a0choose to have the AARP United Healthcare Medicare Supplement Plan instead of the Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan.\u00a0We 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.\u00a0\u00a0Some have not, or based on their medical needs, if given the choice, would choose to change to the AARP Medicare supplement plan.\u00a0 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. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Key components and differences between the Aetna Medicare advantage plan and Medicare Supplement are:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00b7<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00b7<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>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.\u00a0\u00a0A Medicare supplement does not require those pre-approvals.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00b7<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00b7<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>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. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00b7<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Symbol;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> The AARP plan (also called as a Medigap plan) is defined as a Plan N with coverage co-pays and limits defined by Medicare.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><i><b>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.<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">With this filing to Judge Hall on June 18th, we now wait for his review, further action and\/or decision. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We had a successful benefits retiree forum meeting on May 30th\u00a0at Pine View Baptist Church. We had 123 UH Retirees attend.\u00a0 Mr. Jack Long, our attorney, discussed with our group&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-benefits-discussion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We had a successful benefits retiree forum meeting on May 30th\u00a0at Pine View Baptist Church. We had 123 UH Retirees attend.\u00a0 Mr. Jack Long, our attorney, discussed with our group&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UH Retiree Benefits Task Force\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ken Sweatman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ken Sweatman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ken Sweatman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494\"},\"headline\":\"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":700,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"All Posts\",\"Benefits Discussion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/\",\"name\":\"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/\",\"name\":\"UH Retiree Benefits Task Force\",\"description\":\"UH Retiree Promised Benefits\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494\",\"name\":\"Ken Sweatman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ken Sweatman\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uhretireegroup.org\\\/uhrgtf\\\/author\\\/kenuhrg\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force","og_description":"We had a successful benefits retiree forum meeting on May 30th\u00a0at Pine View Baptist Church. We had 123 UH Retirees attend.\u00a0 Mr. Jack Long, our attorney, discussed with our group&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/","og_site_name":"UH Retiree Benefits Task Force","article_published_time":"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00","author":"Ken Sweatman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ken Sweatman","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/"},"author":{"name":"Ken Sweatman","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494"},"headline":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum","datePublished":"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/"},"wordCount":700,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["All Posts","Benefits Discussion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/","url":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/","name":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum - UH Retiree Benefits Task Force","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-06-22T21:53:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/court-action-and-follow-up-benefits-retiree-forum\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Court Action and Follow-up Benefits Retiree Forum"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/","name":"UH Retiree Benefits Task Force","description":"UH Retiree Promised Benefits","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/#\/schema\/person\/b2c61fd291f997313c462fcdae6e8494","name":"Ken Sweatman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68734b360308832456f24fd83efb82985ccbedd1f8c9a71cb7ecae4429ffb9fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ken Sweatman"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf"],"url":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/author\/kenuhrg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhretireegroup.org\/uhrgtf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}