I called AON this morning and tried to get a copy of the presentation, but they are unable to provide that until they post it on their website sometime in August. I did comment to them that many of the retirees do not have computer access, nor a high level of computer literacy, so doing communications in this manner is not very helpful to the population that needs to be helped in this matter.
So here's the bullet points from the presentation
- AON Retiree Health Exchange is a private market insurance broker. From the web; Aon plc is a British multinational corporation headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that provides risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, investment banking, human resource solutions and outsourcing services. So this is the company which Medtronic has contracted with to handle this transition.
- You will have access to a Retiree Health Reimbursement Account (RHRA) as a medical subsidy account. This will in essence provide the level of benefit you were given upon retirement based on your age at retirement and years of service (i.e. how much of your medical insurance they covered). You will not know the amount of funding until at least September, and this will be a different amount for each individual.
- There was something called a catastrophic Rx benefit to cover high drug costs if you get pushed into the donut hole in Part D Medicare. It's not clear how you get this or how it works. Part D coverage was just part of your insurance from Medtronic, but out in the marketplace it's separate and the donut hole is a defined part of Medicare.
- AON can be your resource to find your supplemental Medicare insurance and Part D drug coverage insurance. Or you can work through SGIA (Michael Clark and Ryan Hansen). We have significant experience with Ryan and Michael. Or you can go it on your own.
- They made some comment about a private medicare exchange and I don't see that this is anything other than just an insurance brokerage.
- Sign up is between October 2 and December 31, 2017. If you have a significant pre-existing medical condition you CANNOT let your insurance lapse or you may suffer coverage loss, so please make sure that you deal with this transition prior to the end of 2017.
- The AON phone number is 1-844-364-7621 They will NOT be able to give you any individual plan details, nor guidance specific to your situation until after early October because the market place plans are simply not available until that date. You will apparently be able to set up an appointment during the September time frame.
- Remember, you can work with any insurance broker and still have access to your RHRA, you may just have to deal with submitting bills and then getting them paid to either you or the insurance provider. There doesn't seem to be any available details on how this access will work. Apparently if you use AON to set up your insurance you can have automated access to your RHRA for payment.
- Medical, vision and dental coverage if you received it through Medtronic is going away Jan 1, 2018. So if you still had vision and dental through Medtronic it's no longer going to be available. Remember the Retiree group has secured a group dental plan but you must be a dues paying member to take advantage of that plan. If you had vision coverage I would suggest you discuss that with whatever broker you deal with.
- Watch your physical snail mail for something during probably late August which should provide details
Our October 24th meeting will have Michael Clark and Ryan Hansen from SGIA presenting on issues in the market place, and probably who they have seen as good providers for both the supplemental and Part D insurance coverage. We will also have representatives from Ironwood Wealth Management so that we can provide guidance on the usage of the RHRA and if there are any tax implications.
Please put October 24th from 1 to 3PM on your calendars. We will meet in the Lecture Hall in Building 3 on the Tempe Medtronic campus. The Lecture Hall is easily found off the main hallway in Building 3 and has an entrance just across from the cafeteria.
Have a great remainder of your summer and we will get through this transition.
