Wednesday 11/29/2023
Did the laundry. Took the standard walk, but in the afternoon.
At 3pm there was an information session on Medicare and related topics. This was motivated because Sutter Health, the corporation that owns the Palo Alto Medical Facility, is changing its policy on what insurance plans it will accept. Several people received notice that their plans would no longer be accepted. My plan, which I share with two other retired IBMers here, is one of the many plans that are shown on the Sutter website as “Under negotiation”. So will my IBM-provided United Health Care Group PPO be accepted next year? The majority of the people in the room are patients of PAMF, plus a few with Kaiser.
The person giving the info was a nice and well-informed guy who is an independent health insurance broker and advisor, not a Sutter employee. He gave a clear rundown on the different kinds of plans, Medicare part A and B, and supplemental plans, and part D plans, and Medicare Advantage plans.
Bottom line, for 2024 Sutter is no longer accepting ANY medicare advantage plans except its own. Medicare A and B and supplemental plans for those are still good with them, but not Advantage plans. Except for the exceptions. On the Sutter website, a ton of plans from United, and Blue Cross, and other big outfits, are shown as “under negotiation”. The consultant was not able to answer the question, “when will these negotiations be complete, is there a deadline?” Nope. No deadline. Can’t say.
What will happen if UHC and Sutter don’t agree? Will I have to change plans, or keep the plan and change doctors? If I changed plans, would IBM still pay for it? The consultant could only say that all such questions are between “your corporate benefits administrator and Sutter.” (There was one guy with a similar issue regarding his Hewlett-Packard retirement benefit.) Craig Allen later contacted an IBM benefits person who could only say “it’s under negotiation.”
Codgerville 