[villagetinker]

I spoke with a rep from SHINE today. Apparently there has been NO decision on what will happen to the 15,000 (or so) current patients of Villages health system that have a "grandfathered" Medicare supplemental plan, IF the VHS decides that only the ADVANTAGE plan will be accepted. This is or can be a very big deal for these patients. During this conversation I found out that Monroe Regional hospital is part of the VHS (not sure of the details), the problem is that very few if any of the VHS doctors have privileges at this hospital. Confused?? I am.
As I understand it (from this conversation) there should be a 'decision' in the next 2 weeks or so, and we all will be getting letters. So at this point, we are going to wait until we get a letter, then look very carefully at our options (stay in VHS, which means going to the advantage plan, or leave for doctors outside VHS with our supplement plan), and go from there. What we will not be doing is going to just the UHC offices to get their info, personally I doubt this is a balanced view.
The bottom line as I understand it, will be hold the ADVANTAGE plan handles doctors and specialists, and hospitals OUTSIDE of the existing system, or will there be additional resources added to the existing ADVANTAGE system to allow access to faculties and doctors outside the system for specialty care.