United Health Passport Option

[rexxfan]

I'm researching Medicare options. Can any snowbird who has one of the UHC Medicare Advantage plans accepted by The Villages Health and who uses the Passport option while away from The Villages tell me how, exactly, you go about finding a provider that accepts Passport in the area you spend the Summer in?
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bc

[villagetinker]

I was told that UHC provides a list of providers for the location you are going to be in, since one of the areas we would be frequenting was not on the list (the state of Colorado) we opted out.

[Edjkoz]

Anyone who accepts UHC is supposed to accept the passport. I have used it and it worked well

[rexxfan]

Anyone who accepts UHC is supposed to accept the passport. I have used it and it worked well

So, when looking for a provider in the area you spend the Summer, how do you do that exactly? Is there a way for me to do that even though I am not (yet) enrolled? I hunted in vain for a website where I could search for one. They all wanted to know what plan I was enrolled in before they'd let me search and when I put in one of The Villages plans, all they'd show me is the providers I could use here. I'd like to know, before I decide whether or not to enroll, whether there are any providers I can use at my Summer location. Any ideas?
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bc

[Bogie Shooter]

So, when looking for a provider in the area you spend the Summer, how do you do that exactly? Is there a way for me to do that even though I am not (yet) enrolled? I hunted in vain for a website where I could search for one. They all wanted to know what plan I was enrolled in before they'd let me search and when I put in one of The Villages plans, all they'd show me is the providers I could use here. I'd like to know, before I decide whether or not to enroll, whether there are any providers I can use at my Summer location. Any ideas?
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bc
Go to their store in LSL, across from the bank.....and get the right answer.
Or better still make an appt and get the full story.

[Nucky]

Rexfan, I just did this over the summer that just passed. A call to United Health Care put me onto the Network that they wanted me to use in Jersey and it just so happened that my old Doctor was in the plan which was nice. If you drive to your other spot then Emergency rooms are your answer when on the trip and don't forget to find the in network hospitals wherever you land.

UHC is a very customer oriented company, a shock with the way things are nowadays. Just call them Before you Leave and when you get back home. Good Luck. 1-866-627-7806. Be prepared to be impressed.

[villagetinker]

When we were checking this out, the UHC store in Brownwood had a book with all of the 'passport' locations covered and the current providers, this is how we found out the entire state of Colorado was not included, note this was 3 years ago. As mentioned above, go to the store and ask them directly, get a copy of the page, then call the medical provider to make sure of coverage acceptance.

[Dan9871]

, you go about finding a provider that accepts Passport in the area you spend the Summer in?
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bc

First of all here is the list of places that Passport works for the current UHC Advantage site:

https://www.aarpmedicareplans.com/alphadms/ovdms10g/groups/ov/@ov/@highrespdf/documents/highrespdf/4334042.pdf

Then once you confirm that your summer residence is covered you can go to the Health Insurance Plans for Individuals & Families, Employers, Medicare | UnitedHealthcare (https://uhc.com) site and (it's a bit tedious) and look into buying an Advantage Plan but don't actually buy it:

1. select the medicare option near the top of the of the Health Insurance Plans for Individuals & Families, Employers, Medicare | UnitedHealthcare (http://uhc.com) page
2. then use the "find and enroll" for your summer residence zip code
3. then pick Advantage Plans
4. on the page that comes up for each plan you will see a "Is my provider covered...", drill down through that and you can see all doctors, search etc.

Of course this list changes all the time, not just once a year and it is not 100% accurate... some of the doc's on the list won't accept the plan and some who do aren't on the list, but is will give you an idea of what is covered.

In general no one, not even UHC, can tell you absolutely, for sure a particular doc' will be available to you.

[rexxfan]

First of all here is the list of places that Passport works for the current UHC Advantage site:

https://www.aarpmedicareplans.com/alphadms/ovdms10g/groups/ov/@ov/@highrespdf/documents/highrespdf/4334042.pdf

Then once you confirm that your summer residence is covered you can go to the Health Insurance Plans for Individuals & Families, Employers, Medicare | UnitedHealthcare (https://uhc.com) site and (it's a bit tedious) and look into buying an Advantage Plan but don't actually buy it:

1. select the medicare option near the top of the of the Health Insurance Plans for Individuals & Families, Employers, Medicare | UnitedHealthcare (http://uhc.com) page
2. then use the "find and enroll" for your summer residence zip code
3. then pick Advantage Plans
4. on the page that comes up for each plan you will see a "Is my provider covered...", drill down through that and you can see all doctors, search etc.

Of course this list changes all the time, not just once a year and it is not 100% accurate... some of the doc's on the list won't accept the plan and some who do aren't on the list, but is will give you an idea of what is covered.

In general no one, not even UHC, can tell you absolutely, for sure a particular doc' will be available to you.

Thanks so much for your help, Dan. According to that PDF, the entire state of NY is covered, so I should be ok. I had actually been to that provider finder site. It just wasn't clear that if I put in my Summer zipcode that all the providers I found would be available to me. If that's truly the case its good news as there are plenty available, including the doctor I used to go to before I changed my residence to The Villages.
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bc

[Mudder]

I use the passport option three times a year. I go to Mass General Hospital in Boston to receive treatment, etc... for a rare chronic condition. My co pays are the same I would pay here for specialist and therapist visits. If your whole summer state participated in United Health you shouldn't have a problem. One word of caution tho......it is much better to go to a UHC office here in Villages than make the passport arrangements over the phone. Here is why, over the phone they will usually insist that you give an address where you will be staying. After I did that once my daughter started receiving my mail from UHC. It took forever to get that straightened out.
UHC has added states over the last few years and also some have been subtracted so I would go to UHC office in Lake Sumter. The paper books are sometimes outdated by the time you get them. The whole thing works very well for us.

[rexxfan]

... It took forever to get that straightened out.
UHC has added states over the last few years and also some have been subtracted so I would go to UHC office in Lake Sumter. The paper books are sometimes outdated by the time you get them. The whole thing works very well for us.

Good suggestion, although we still own the house in NY where we spend the Summer, its just not our principal residence. If mail should happen to go there, it wouldn't be that big a deal, we always forward it back here when we leave in the Fall.

On a related subject, does anyone have any comments about how the AARP-branded Advantage plans compare to The Villages-branded ones?
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bc

[Dan9871]

On a related subject, does anyone have any comments about how the AARP-branded Advantage plans compare to The Villages-branded ones?
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bc

My understanding is they are exactly the same thing for similar plans, it is just branding. We have the non-AARP UHC advantage plan and for the first year or two when we checked with Villages Health about co-pay balances it always came up as an AARP UHC balance. VH said that was the one they used for accounting purposes... because it was the same policy as the corresponding UHC policy we had.