Chair Talk
September 2007
On Friday, August 31, 2007 John Bantjes, Duane Marlan, Alvin Whitfield and I attended a meeting requested by Jan Winters (Civil Service) to discuss Medicare Advantage. Susan Kant (Dir. Of Emp. Ben.) and Jill Nowicki (OSE). Jan informed us that the State had decided to implement the Medicare Advantage plan proposed by Blue Cross/Blue Shield with an effective date of January 1, 2008. Based upon information provided by BC/BS the State could save over $20 million in health care costs per year. We reviewed the problems/resolutions that were encountered by MPSERS (Public School Retirees) since they had utilized the BC/BS Medicare Advantage plan since 1-1-07. We were presented with a comparison of the plan design for Original Medicare, Current State Health Plan PPO and the proposed State Health Plan Medicare Advantage. After reviewing the comparisons the only areas of concern were Mental Health/Substance Abuse and member/family deductibles. Both areas will probably be resolved in the near future. After meeting with the State, three representatives from BC/BS (Arva Overton, Cynthia Pierce and Terri Simmons) then met with all of us. We again asked questions regarding the Medicare Advantage plan and the amount of health care savings to the State.
It’s quite apparent that there will be significant savings utilizing the Medicare Advantage Plan. I believe that it would be in our best interest to do what we can to educate State Retirees about this plan. Providing information to retirees about Medicare Advantage will be more of a challenge than the changes we have assisted with in the past (move to PPO and Aetna conversion to BC/BS).
Civil Service, Employee Benefits and BC/BS representatives will be attending the September 6th SERA Executive Committee meeting to explain the Medicare Advantage Plan to those attending. The comparison of plans will be sent to all Chapter Presidents.
I am calling for a “special” CC meeting to be held on Thursday, September 27, 2007. I am calling this meeting in accordance with CC By-Laws Article VI Section 1 A. The meeting will start at 10:00 a.m. We will break for lunch at 11:45 a.m. The cost of lunch will be the same as usually charged for the CC meeting. The only item on the Agenda will be the proposed Medicare Advantage Plan scheduled to go into effect on 1-1-08. Representatives of Civil Service, Employee Benefits and Blue Cross/Blue Shield will be in attendance to explain the plan and answer questions. I will be sending notices of this meeting to CC Officers, Chapter Presidents, Delegates and Alternates. For more information, see the full announcement on the home page.
Editor’s note: Bob Kopasz is Chair of the Michigan SERA Council. He may be reached at P.O. Box 692, Mt. Morris, MI 48458; phone 810/240-8380
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