This is cruel. Why does the organization name keep changing? Aren't human resources people supposed to be knowledgeable about how human memories work? Particularly, do they know NOTHING about senior humans? They have just guaranteed most older retired employees will not remember any name and will keep calling the IBM Employee Service Center to ask how to file claims - if they even remember to file claims.
Oh, wait, but this is such a memorable name! Via ... isn't that a road? This is the road to benefits? It's more likely the road to forgetting about benefits.
Maybe HR saw how successful they were getting people to forget SHAP - which stands for Special Health Assistance Provision. Isn't that descriptive? That's a benefit for IBM people who retired before 1997 and reimburses $900 of their Medicare part B premiums. It is so memorable that I personally know 5 people who did not realize they had the benefit and did not file claims for years. This might be HR's attempt to do the same thing for the HRA/FHA.
Write down the new organization name - Via Benefits. Say it 100 times. Then print it on a piece of paper and tape it to your forehead. That way you will remember, whenever you look in the mirror, who has your retiree health benefits money.
I couldn't help but write this brief post because it is too silly to let it alone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Do you know if this name change has somehow affected the IBM Funding Arrangement with OneExchange. I went to print some forms, and was told I had no funding arrangement. Even though I was reimbursed for my Jan. 2018 Medicare Premium. This came out of the blue. Very upsetting.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't have a thing to do with how your funding is done. However, a couple of months ago, you should have received one Barcode encoded form personalized to you to use to file a claim. You need to make a copy of it each time you file a claim. If you did not get it - here are two phone numbers to try to ask for the form. The one on the personalized form is 1-855-359-7380. The one in their November 2017 newsletter is 1-855-342-2308.
DeletePlato, does this name change affect Medicare eligible IBM retirees? I ask because the reading I have some seems to indicate this for individual markets for employees and retirees pre-medicare. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI got an email on January 22nd specifically saying: "On March 1, 2018 Towers Watson's OneExchange will become Via Benefits." As such, I believe the name change applies to all of retirees who use Towers Watson services.
ReplyDeletePlato, got an email 2/5/18 titled "OneExchange is now Via Benefits". Confirms your news. Thanks for the advanced notice.
DeleteIsn't that what companies do when they go bankrupt, just change their name?
ReplyDeleteIt is strange that they keep changing the name of the LLC. Stranger still is that it is an LLC and not a straight up corporation. Maybe that's a required status for independent insurance sales agencies? Maybe it is a new marketing director's idea! After all, OneExchange is about as informative as calling it Joe's claim center.
DeleteI do know the turn around on claims has gone way up from the same time last year. In January 2017, my Medicare supplement claim was paid 2 weeks after I mailed it.In 2018 it took 4 weeks after being mailed. I have another claim that was mailed 3 weeks ago, and I have yet to receive a notification it was received.Another was rejected for "no documentation received" even though I have copies of what I sent. I sent the same documentation that I sent in 2017 for my dental premium, and it was rejected for "the document you sent isn't legible".It was sent on the "new form", which doesn't work well for recurring monthly premiums paid quarterly. On the old form you could put starting and ending dates(Jan-Dec). All in all, the service I have received has really gone down hill.
ReplyDeleteSomething must be off with them. UGH.I haven't filed any claims this year. We chew up most of our HSA with premium payments (medigaps, part D, part B) and they are automatically reimbursed. I decided to wait until October and in one shot will file a claim for the remaining balance. Maybe they have a new recurring premium form?
DeleteMy first year with One Exchange and a FHA balance to use. My wife is not 65 yet so we pay around 1K a month for her IBM coverage.
ReplyDeleteI have found that the online claim process does work(upload images of your claims and paperwork), but is slow in the sense that they seem to sit on the claim for two weeks at least. I also noticed that they send me notifications via email all the time on claims, but they have not paid or denied them. This seems to happen on the last day of the month, to cover themselves, that they responded.
I have been successful in setting up a re-occurring payment for my MediGap and prescription drug plan. Both Blue Cross and Silverscript send a claim to One Exchange and I get paid. I had to setup a bank draft for both. I pay my Medicare quarterly premium by check to the goverment(I am not taking SS) and this finally was reimbursed after many tries online. They kept wanting a canceled check but there was none, as the government did not return this to my bank. My bank said it was next to impossible to get this now. So, OneExchange finally accepted a copy of my bank statement that showed the check number and amount. Will have to do this 3 more times this year.
Finally, no success yet on getting reimbursed for my wife's 1K monthly premium. I set this up as a re-occurring claim to the end of the year. So, around 12K by the end of the year. OneExchange is sitting on this one for a month now. All I get are notifications that say it was received but not processed. I have a feeling that OneExchange does not want to have your FHA account go to zero, as then I will not need them anymore for yearly sign-up and they will lose commission.
I only have my FHA balance to use and then am done, since IBM is not contributing anything more.
Anecdotal comments by friends lead me to believe the processing of our claims has been outsourced - perhaps to India. I urge everyone who is having unresolved problems to call the IBM Employee Service Center. They won't do anything but press on them that you want information on how to contact the IBM "oversight board" for Via Benefits because you need to complain to someone besides Via Benefits. That might inspire IBM to fix it.
DeleteIt is not easy to find, but there is a document that describes your benefits on netbenefits.com. In it is called "About your Benefits Post Retirement" and is a description of the oversight board (it's 3 people). Send a letter to IBM Plan Administrator
DeleteIBM Employee Service Center,
PO Box 770003
Cincinnati OH 45277-1060 if you cannot get any information about the Plan Administrator from the IBM Employee Service Center.
I cannot find that document by searching on netbenefits.com as of 8/27/19
DeleteI suggest you call the IBM Service Center at 1-800-796-9876 and ask them where to find a copy of "About your Benefits Post Retirement". I just tried to find it and I cannot find it either.
Delete"About your Benefits Post Retirement"
Delete(aka, ushr112). First login into netbenefits. then click on this link. it should open or prompt for download of the pdf document. link = http://bit.ly/2UnEQxA
For the most part I have been successful with filing the claims. Although it has been taking a little longer to get reimbursed. I'm fortunate because I pay all my premiums for the entire year in January and after payments have been cleared. Submit the invoices and payment confirmations online by uploading them. Occasionally I believe the data entry person keys something wrong and 1 will get rejected. I just resubmit and it goes through. I don't like dealing with them so I get it out of the way by February each year. Last year I had some issues that took a couple of months to get resolved ( real pain in the a**. This year things went ok. With the via name change next year may be a challenge. IBM said you should be able to get to "VIA" via netbenefits but I tried it this morning and the link doesn't work. Looks like they are having problems as well. That link way working last month before it was"VIA"
ReplyDeletegood luck to all of us.
I did send Netbenefits an email with the error message.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to submit a claim online and all I get is a flashing VIABENEFITS screen until it times out with service unavailable. This is UNACCEPTABLE
ReplyDeleteI am having a ton of problems too. Websites that don't work, recurring Medicare Part B premium claims denied with the same docs submitted as last year, confusing feed back emails with very poor cross reference as to which claim denied and why...very frustrating conversations on the phone with people who are hard to understand, conflicting information from one responder vs another...it's a mess. I hope IBM is aware of these issues...actually I hope they care.
ReplyDeletePlease see my replies to earlier comment in this posting for someone else having problems. You have to push on IBM to get them to do something to inspire Via Benefits to be better. Sometimes contacting the VP of HR works. According to LinkedIn the person is Diane Gherson. Send her a letter at corporate headquarters.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! Thanks for all the IBM contact info. Via Benefits has seriously deteriorated over the years. It is a struggle to get them to approve routine claims. My wife and I are both IBM retirees and they constantly deny claims as duplicates if we both submit the same dollar amount (like Medicare Part B premiums). Customer Service is really bad in that they cannot fix much of anything. I will be writing letters to IBM about this company.
ReplyDelete--William
Maybe you will get a reaction if you write to John Haley who is Willis Towers Watson CEO. The HQ for WTW is in England. It might be worth a try because IBM has basically throw the administration of our HRAs over the wall to them. The address is:
Delete51 Lime Street
London, Greater London EC3M 7DQ
United Kingdom
Once you figure it all out--they will send you another 6 inch package to read--if your eyes are good enough to read the small pring---Sending a note to Genny or what ever her name is only gets you sent to some new person that can barely understand you and has no idea what a damn retiree is----and every year you can go through the same stupid process--they know we will not last long. I remember whan IBM loved us
ReplyDeletevia benefits now they confuse you with-- you have to accept cookies so they can send you all kinds of junk mail before you can ever get to the sign on. Just what we need more frustration
ReplyDeleteIt's another reminder that Via Benefits is an insurance broker that gets a commission for every policy bought through them. Of course they want to sell more stuff to generate more revenue!
DeleteI recently sent Via a fax for reimburse. I printed the form and they said use fax number on form. It's not right number call Via ask for correct fax number.
ReplyDelete