IBM Medicare Advantage is just another IBM "Retirement Heist"

 Ellen E. Schultz is a long time reporter for the WSJ who spent many years reporting about how companies plunder and profit from the nest eggs of American workers.  She published a book in 2011 detailing the ways IBM  and other corporations drained money from pension funds to enrich executives by stealing pension and health benefits from employees.  This corporate grift continues even though the pickings are not as lucrative.

If you've never read Ellen Schultz's book (I had not), it is "Retirement Heist".  

It is not an easy book to read because the schemes used to steal employee and retiree money are complex and convoluted. There are also a lot of complicit grifters in government and judicial system laws. The best reason to read the book is to learn about the unsung heroes who were ordinary employees with an extraordinary determination to proved the grift.  The second best reason to read it, is it might help you understand why this latest maneuver by IBM to move you to a Medicare Advantage plan is just the final step in stealing deferred compensation related to your health benefits.  IBM must have used up all the ways to steal deferred compensation from pension funds and probably why they are selling off pieces of the fund to Prudential and MetLife and kissing some of us good-bye.

After reading "Retirement Heist", I hope you will join me in filing a complaint with your state department of labor that IBM is stealing your deferred compensation.  It will be hard for states attorney generals to ignore thousands of complaints and maybe even put the state and federal government on the right side of protecting workers. It's a big maybe.  An ERISA lawyer recently told me he sometimes had more success filing complaints for his clients than litigating cases.

Wishes for a 2023 full of good health and successful activism. 

IBM Medicare Advantage Regret? Undo it!

 If you enrolled in IBM's United HealthCare plan and now regret your choice, from January 1 to March 31, 2023, you have the ability to return to original Medicare.

This option has nothing to do with IBM.  It is a little known federal government (CMS) option to change your Medicare Advantage insurance during what is called "Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment".  Here is a link to the government website that describes it in the 3rd bullet:
  
https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/joining-a-health-or-drug-plan

If you find out the doctors you want to use won't take the IBM plan, or you found other information to confirm what I have been writing about for years regarding the exploitation of Medicare Advantage insurance companies, you might want to undo your IBM UHC enrollment.  I'll explain what I mean by "might".

The way to undo it, is to call Medicare (1-800-633-4227) and tell them you want to disenroll.  They will help you pick a prescription drug insurance plan, enroll you into it and effective the first of the next month, you will be back in original Medicare.  

The harder part is reinstating your Medicare Supplement plan and that's where "might" comes into play.  In some states (such as New York) it is easily done.  Call any insurance company that sells Medicare Supplement plans as they are obligated to sell you the type of policy you want to buy.  They cannot refuse you.  In some states, such as Florida, you must call back the company you used before making the switch and also buy the policy type you previously had because you are doing it in less than a year since you dropped it.

If this is the FIRST TIME you have enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, at the federal level you have 12 months to change your mind. Per this information on the Medicare website (and it will be important to reference this citation when you call Medicare and you medigap company if you decide you want to leave the IBM UHC plan) you will be able to go back to the medigap you previously had:

https://www.medicare.gov/supplements-other-insurance/when-can-i-buy-medigap/guaranteed-issue-rights

If this is not your first try of a Medicare Advantage plan, in some states, you might have to try a lot of companies to get a policy and there is a chance you won't find one so you've lost the ability to buy a Medicare Supplement plan in that state.  In that case, you can still use original Medicare, but you won't have an annual "maximum" for your part of doctor and hospital fees.

There are people who take the risk and bet they won't need to pay for a supplement insurance because it takes a whole lot of being sick for coinsurance costs to skyrocket. Instead, they pay themselves the "premium" every month and put it into a contingency fund to use in case they do get sick.   I write that because Medicare fee for service limits, particularly for doctor services, are quite low.  For example, twenty percent of a procedure such out-patient knee replacement, and physical therapy is about $2000. 

 However, it is a gamble.

Updated 1/9/2023

Here's another analysis of how Medicare Advantage plans can be really bad for your health:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/business/medicare-advantage-retirement.html

IBM Medicare Advantage 2023 Kaiser Foundation Analysis of Retiree Health Benefits

 As I wrote in an earlier post, the action IBM is taking to force retirees onto Medicare Advantage plans is not unique.  Corporations and state/local governments are similarly taking this action and have been doing it for years.  The reason is to lower costs.  My interpretation of "lower costs" is another way of stealing retiree deferred compensation.  This is the recently published Kaiser Foundation report:

https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/medicare-advantage-coverage-is-rising-for-the-declining-share-of-medicare-beneficiaries-with-retiree-health-benefits/

       

This WSJ article was published in 2004.  IBM is specifically cited in their analysis.  In this 2004 article, IBM describes that retirees who transition to Medicare cost them very little.  In 2023 IBM wants Medicare eligible retirees to cost them zero!  

https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/SB107940131862956349.htm

Don't let IBM steal your deferred compensation!