[ActsOfKindness]

Hi to all you good people out there. Having a real delimmea rite now and alot of stress. At the moment my husband and I have Preferred care insurance in the villages. It was nice because the premiums were offset the past two years..which cant complain about that. D o not know what is going to happen to medicare advantage programs in 2014 via obamacare..however, we just found out ..we dont even have access anymore to a retina specialist or othmalgists in our insurance provider directory. We were told after trying to make an appointment today with an eye doctor on preferred care, that our zip code is not accepted, sumter county anymore..3 doctors already called that said that...we were shocked and got the runaround by preferred care.
now we are told..WE ARE ASSIGNED TO ONE AND ONLY ONE EYE DOCTOR IN ALL OF FLORIDA..and if they deem it necessary to see a retina specialist which they do not have on staff, they go from there. my husband is a diabetic and of course that concerned us.
We definitely will probably make a switch next year to another 'insurance' but its mind boggeling trying to figure this out.
DOES ANYONE READING THIS HAVE A MEDICARE -SUPPLEMENT- AND IF SO HOW ARE THE PREMIUMS AND COVERAGE? PLEASE EMAIL ME AT
flowerpower55@gmail.com
SO VERY GRATEFUL FOR ANY IMPUT.
WENT TO AARRP ONLINE..AND VERY BRIEF SUMMERY OF A FEW OF THEIR PLANS..UNITED HEALTHCARE ETC. IS THERE ANYONE IN THE VILLAGES TO SPEAK TO ..THAT CAN EXPLAIN THESE SUPPLEMENTAL PLANS
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU....
flowerpower55@gmail.com (marlene)

[Avista]

Go,to The Preferred Care Partners office in Sumpter Landing and talk with them.. Something doesn't sound right. I have Glaucoma and go to MidFlorida Eye.
http://www.midfloridaeye.com/index.html.

[wendyquat]

I hope you can work it out with PCP as you certainly save some money but wih heart and diabetes problems we found the doctor choice to be unacceptable for us. If you do have to go with a regular supplement I highly recommend AARPs United Health Care plan F. We've had it or years and never had a problem. It runs about $175 each per month.

[bachfan]

I have worked in Physician's offices for over 30 year and still work in a Ortho office in TV and I always knew when the time came to get Medicare and secondary ins for my husband ( as he goes on it in Sept) it was going to be AARP. All the Medicare advantage plans have too many strings attached, yes they are cheap but at our age I don't want to be told who and where we can go for treatment. AARP has several plans (plan F IS the most popular and will run about 167 a month but you will probably never have a balance from anything or any Dr. And can go anywhere in the Country to receive the best care if you ever need it.

[Shirleevee]

Originally Posted by bachfan

I have worked in Physician's offices for over 30 year and still work in a Ortho office in TV and I always knew when the time came to get Medicare and secondary ins for my husband ( as he goes on it in Sept) it was going to be AARP. All the Medicare advantage plans have too many strings attached, yes they are cheap but at our age I don't want to be told who and where we can go for treatment. AARP has several plans (plan F IS the most popular and will run about 167 a month but you will probably never have a balance from anything or any Dr. And can go anywhere in the Country to receive the best care if you ever need it.

I agree and have the AARP 'F' Plan which is the cadillac of all the plans..

[Shirleevee]

Originally Posted by Avista

Go,to The Preferred Care Partners office in Sumpter Landing and talk with them.. Something doesn't sound right. I have Glaucoma and go to MidFlorida Eye.
Welcome to Mid Florida Eye Center.

My husband has PCP and was just denied a follow up visit by Mid Florida, they told him they no longer take PCP......we will check back with them.

[Avista]

Originally Posted by Shirleevee

My husband has PCP and was just denied a follow up visit by Mid Florida, they told him they no longer take PCP......we will check back with them.

I will call Preferred Care Partners in Sumter tomorrow. (Easier to talk with them than main number ). I have a follow-up with Mid Florida end of July. Wasn't anticipating any problems, but best to call.

[Madelaine Amee]

We have AARP Plan "J" which is the best of the best, but is no longer available - thankfully we had bought into it right at the beginning so we are grand fathered. Take the best United Health Care plan you can afford. Neither one of us had ever been sick, about two years after moving here the other half was diagnosed with rare form of cancer and I had a major kidney problem which could only be treated at Mayo.

Give up other things, but get the best health care you can afford. Ours costs us about $350 for two per month, then factor in your Medicare payment off your SS. Expensive stuff, but so worth it when you need it.

[Avista]

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

We have AARP Plan "J" which is the best of the best, but is no longer available - thankfully we had bought into it right at the beginning so we are grand fathered. Take the best United Health Care plan you can afford. Neither one of us had ever been sick, about two years after moving here the other half was diagnosed with rare form of cancer and I had a major kidney problem which could only be treated at Mayo.

Give up other things, but get the best health care you can afford. Ours costs us about $350 for two per month, then factor in your Medicare payment off your SS. Expensive stuff, but so worth it when you need it.

Do any of these policys include RX Drugs? If not, how much extra is this?

[NotGolfer]

Oh good grief!!! Two years ago when we signed up with PCP Mid-Florida Eye was "with" the network BUT a few months later I wanted to make an app't and they said they no longer were with PCP. Now fast-forward to this year (2013)...we were told they're back with PCP! What exactly "gives" with this organization (Mid-Florida Eye)???

I guess I'll contact the PCP office myself to find out the true state of affairs!!!
Oh...the one thing I was told back when was we need to see an optometrist first then we'll be referred to Mid-Florida Eye's specialists...so maybe that's the case here. The thing about zip-codes sounds complicated to me!!

[billethkid]

This is a sad testimony to the confusion of health care.

Just wait until the rest of the governments health care laws go into effect.

Also remember that what ever you have today, like it or not, it is the very best you will have at any point going forward.......ditto for office waits...what is not going to be covered surprises..... and just wait for the cost increases.

And since most people including administrators of providers, we won't know anything until we see the price increase.

Tis only the beginning.

btk

[Avista]

Originally Posted by NotGolfer

Oh good grief!!! Two years ago when we signed up with PCP Mid-Florida Eye was "with" the network BUT a few months later I wanted to make an app't and they said they no longer were with PCP. Now fast-forward to this year (2013)...we were told they're back with PCP! What exactly "gives" with this organization (Mid-Florida Eye)???

I guess I'll contact the PCP office myself to find out the true state of affairs!!!
Oh...the one thing I was told back when was we need to see an optometrist first then we'll be referred to Mid-Florida Eye's specialists...so maybe that's the case here. The thing about zip-codes sounds complicated to me!!

Here is the way I understand the situation. For an eye exam one must see an in network optomitrist first and get a referral. Mid Florida's optomitrists are NOT in their network. If you have an established diagnosis ie glaucoma, you do not need a referral and may go directly to the Mid Florida Eye Ophthalmologist.

[ijusluvit]

Originally Posted by Avista

Do any of these policys include RX Drugs? If not, how much extra is this?

All of the Plan F s I have looked at so far do NOT include prescription drug coverage. That extra coverage runs about $40 per month. Again, you pay nothing after that, as long as the drug is covered by Medicare.

[Avista]

OK so Plan F would be $175/ month, RX drug coverage would be $40/ momth.
Plus $99 is deducted from your SS per momth.

That comes to $314 per month per person or $628 per couple.

I'm sure Plan F is great if the money is there

For those couples unable to spend this much per month, Preferred Care Partners is another option.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by wendyquat

.... I highly recommend AARPs United Health Care plan F. We've had it or years and never had a problem. It runs about $175 each per month.

Originally Posted by bachfan

.... I always knew when the time came to get Medicare and secondary ins for my husband ( as he goes on it in Sept) it was going to be AARP. All the Medicare advantage plans have too many strings attached, yes they are cheap but at our age I don't want to be told who and where we can go for treatment. AARP has several plans (plan F IS the most popular and will run about 167 a month but you will probably never have a balance from anything or any Dr. And can go anywhere in the Country to receive the best care if you ever need it.

Originally Posted by Shirleevee

I agree and have the AARP 'F' Plan which is the cadillac of all the plans..

Originally Posted by Madelaine Amee

We have AARP Plan "J" which is the best of the best, but is no longer available - thankfully we had bought into it right at the beginning so we are grand fathered. Take the best United Health Care plan you can afford. Neither one of us had ever been sick, about two years after moving here the other half was diagnosed with rare form of cancer and I had a major kidney problem which could only be treated at Mayo.

Give up other things, but get the best health care you can afford. Ours costs us about $350 for two per month, then factor in your Medicare payment off your SS. Expensive stuff, but so worth it when you need it.

I absolutely agree, but as pointed out, it has to be affordable. I too was grandfathered into Plan J from AARP United HealthCare; this includes a couple of benefits that Plan F doesn't, but they're very specific benefits that I've never used and in truth don't even remember what they are. (Do you remember them, Madelaine Amee? If so, please send me a PM.) I should mention too, as I did in another thread, that Plan F is Plan F; they're all identical no matter what insurance company is offering it, and the AARP plan has the absolute lowest premium, at least in FL.

Originally Posted by ijusluvit

All of the Plan F s I have looked at so far do NOT include prescription drug coverage. That extra coverage runs about $40 per month. Again, you pay nothing after that, as long as the drug is covered by Medicare.

Yes, none of the Medicare Supplement plans include prescription drug coverage, which require a separate enrollment. I have yet to find one of these that I'm satisfied with; I've changed plans virtually every single year! To me it's no surprise that these plans are NOT supportive of senior consumers but rather of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.... If anyone has any suggestion for what's good in these plans, please post it. Thanks!