Re-schedule of our Lunch time!!

 We had to reschedule due to some issues at Shalimar. Join me if you are in town at Shalimar Country Club in Tempe at 11:30 on Friday, July 23rd. Please RSVP to either Kris Black or Donna Morris as soon as possible. Since it might be a small group, I need to know so that Shalimar can work something out with us. Looking forward to seeing who's stuck in the valley for the summer. If you are in contact with a retiree who might not yet be in our group, please let them know about this event and invite them to contact either myself or Donna.   kriskreates@gmail.com   or djmorris46@yahoo.com

Dental and Vision Plan Update

 We had a GOTOMEETING with Cesar DelRosal of Delta Benefits today (2/9/2021). Key points are that TDA did not raise the rates for this year. If you have participated in the dental or the vision plan, unless you pay by a credit card that expired sometime in the past year, there are no actions required on your part.

We will email out the document packet. Please make sure that Donna Morris at djmorris46@yahoo.com has your current email address. We have been getting more and more undeliverable notices from our existing email list. 

There are no meetings scheduled at this time, but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do a lunch meeting sometime this summer! Stay tuned for more info.  

 Sorry for not doing a better job of updating this blog. 

Our meeting with SGIA for our Medicare update will be done on Zoom. A meeting notice has been sent out with the Zoom link and/or Zoom meeting ID/passcode. The meeting is schedule for Wednesday, October 14th at 1:00. There is NO physical meeting at Medtronic Tempe on this date as they will only allow employees and vendors on site at this time. 

If you have questions about Zoom, I'm doing a test run this Friday at 1PM and the info on that is being resent out today (Wednesday). Join me if you've not zoomed!!

If you are familiar with Zoom then I hope you will join us with Michael Clark on Wednesday, October 14th. 

We still have our December lunch scheduled and I'm curious if I can schedule the patio just for our use that day how many would be interested in attending. It would have to be a mask required event. And I think we may just have to purchase our own meals this time and we'll figure out how to make it up to everyone next year!! Or you just come and visit. 

Lastly, think about who we should make our donation or donations to this year. We haven't spent much of our money due to the lack of meetings possible during this pandemic. I'm sure we all know of some organizations who are hurting during this time, so send me your inputs. 

January Meeting 1/28/2020 Dental update

Since the shortly after the inception of the retiree club we have had Bob Graham of Graham Advisory Corporation as our Dental Insurance broker. Bob has (at 72) chosen to move into retirement and has chosen Cesar DelRosal and Delta4Benefits to take over our coverage servicing. We got to say good bye to Bob at the meeting and meet Cesar. I feel that our customer service will be just as good with Cesar as it has been with Bob.

The right side bar has been updated with Cesar's contact information. Do not hesitate to contact him or his office if you feel that you are being overcharged or inappropriately charged for a dental service. Cesar reminded us that the way this plan works, each dentist is part of the TDA network and they receive a monthly payment for each member contracted with that dentist - WHETHER WE USE THE SERVICE OR NOT. So never accept "they don't pay us enough" as an excuse for over billing!!

This is the open enrollment period for our coverage so if you want to switch between plans, start or stop coverage, now is the time to do those changes. If you could make any changes by Feb. 15th, that would be great since the plan re-sets March 1st.

Our new rates for March 2020-February 2021 are
Elite Choice (PPO) - choose your dentist
$62.07 (increased from $59.68)  retiree
 $124.12 (increased from $119.35) retiree and spouse
Summit Care Plus Plan (HMO) - must choose dentist from TDA approved list
$20.17 (no change)  retiree
$37.65 (no change) retiree and spouse

My guess is the increase in the PPO plan is that they now provide a discount/subsidy for implants. While on the HMO plan there is no coverage of implants.

One last thing if you have auto payment set up make sure that no changes to your account info or credit card expiration has occurred so that your payments are made in a timely fashion.

I hope to see you at our April meeting as this is an board election meeting. Any suggestions for some speaker topics would be appreciated. Happy 2020!
             

Thank you to everyone who joined us for a meeting in 2019. The side bar to the right has the updated meetings for 2020.

Please note that the servicing and renewal operations for our group Dental policy will be migrating to a new vendor in 2020. Bob Graham our original insurance providing is beginning his migration to full retirement. So at our January 28th meeting, both Bob and Cesar de Rosso (I hope I spelled that correctly) will be joining us and providing us with an update on this change.

In April, part of our meeting will be a business meeting for the group as we need to discuss increasing luncheon expenses and the President and Secretary positions are up for election.

Other than that, see the meeting dates at the right for 2020. See also the contact info for the various vendors we have for you to access.

Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and let's have a great 2020!!

Meetings Update - January and April 2018

January Meeting update
Sorry for the delayed meeting notes.
Our January meeting was on our dental insurance with additional information on a vision care plan and pet insurance.
Our dental insurance goes from March 2018 through February 2019. Single member is $19.77/month and Member+Spouse is $36.91 for this year. There is also a 20% discount on implants starting this year. Information on how to contact Graham Advisory Corporation is to the right. Contact TDA at 602-266-1995 with any specific issues or questions. However do not hesitate to contact Graham Advisory Corp. if you are having an issue that is being difficult to resolve.

Bob Graham introduced Opticare Plus Vision Insurance. I do have some extra insurance packets, but I would suggest you go to www.opticareofutah.com or call 800-363-0950 for more details. I would suggest that you also look at AARP discount plans also before making a decision.

Lastly, pet insurance. As we age, so do our animals and vet care can get very costly. United Pet Care was the plan presented to us. Bob has worked with them to get set up a direct link for us on their website www.unitedpetcare.com/grahamadvisory  Trina Belanger is their local Account Executive and she was very helpful - she can be contacted at 602-266-5303, tbelanger@unitedpetcare.com or call Bob at 480-837-3700 x 102 for more details if you have additional questions. This plan seemed very both user and pet friendly.

April Meeting Update
We met April 10th.
George Rambow from Edward Jones gave a great presentation on a wide variety of scams and how to avoid them. He also had some interesting insight into how financial firms will work with you if you want to turn in a scam or if you get scammed. IMMEDIATE reporting is the key. Do NOT feel embarrassed if you fall for something but report it immediately and get help. George can be contacted at george.rambow@edwardjones.com or call him at 480-747-4510 (cell). George is very helpful and will be happy to talk with you.
Next we had Sharp Chen, from Choice Home Warranty, come and give us a very insightful presentation about the differences between home owners insurance and a home warranty plan. If you have been thinking about a home warranty, I would highly recommend talking through your situation and concerns. She will offer you what is termed a Realtor plan versus a standard retail plan. Sharp may be contacted at 949-426-5450 or sharp@ChoiceHomeWarranty.com

Our remaining meeting dates for 2018 are listed to the right at the top of the section.

Finally, myself and Donna Morris were elected as President and Secretary, respectively for another two years. We did not have any competition and the vote was unanimous.

Meetings with SGIA for your Medicare insurance signup

SGIA has been working with Medtronic to better understand your Medicare insurance benefits moving forward and to assist you in purchasing your own insurance plans now that your Medicare supplement and Part D will no longer be provided through Medtronic as of 2018.

To assist you in this process, SGIA has secured two rooms at Medtronic Tempe on October 24th and 25th for you to schedule a 1:1 with either Michael Clark or Ryan Hansen to aid you in your insurance transition. Please see the attached files
SGIA Medtronic Meeting Notice
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2lmrZ7JHmRaC1rVkctV0tNOW8/view?usp=sharing
SGIA Medtronic Medicare Insurance Assistance
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-2lmrZ7JHmRSFZheFFNUExZSFk/view?usp=sharing

If you have any issues finding these files please send an email to kriskreates@gmail.com and I'll email them to you. These are links to one of my Google drives.

I hope that this will be valuable assistance to you as you move forward with your insurance choices.

There will be another notice as to the details of the October 24th meeting that had previously been scheduled at Medtronic Tempe.