Experience with Enhanced Medication Management program Medicare ?

[Sunshine]

I got a letter inviting me into the enhanced medication therapy management program from my Medicare supplement. I think by law they do this.

They say that you will talk to a pharmacist at Blue Cross Blue Shield who would review all your medications and make suggestions. I’m not sure what type of suggestions, but I imagine there are things about side effects and cheaper drugs. But I don’t know.

It also mentioned in the letter that if I joined, there would be incentives. I called and asked what they were , And they spoke in general terms about savings with coupons and selecting generic drugs with no co-pays.

That did sound interesting, but I just am distrustful of an insurance company knowing the ins and outs of me. Of course they can probably tell by looking at my medication records. I worry that they will change some of my medicines that have worked so well for me.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody here has had an experience with her Medicare supplement program for this program. I am pretty sure all of the supplement programs have to offer the service to Medicare patients.

[agate]

Thanks for mentioning this. I've had a number of offers like this from my insurance provider, United Healthcare. I haven't heard about the pharmacist or Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and so you're probably talking about another plan.

But I've been told repeatedly that I can set up an appointment for someone to come out and do a health assessment on me. It would take about an hour. I even set up one of these appointments a while back but changed my mind and cancelled it. I just had my doubts about how much information about my medical condition I wanted to share with the insurance people. Seems to me that it's best to keep that information between me and my doctors or other actual providers (dentists, physical therapists, labs,etc.)

I think you can find about generic drugs with no co-pays without their help, probably. Still, it might be useful if all the pharmacist is going to do is suggest other equivalent drugs that might be to your advantage medically or financially.

With me, they were talking about someone spending an hour with me, possibly taking my BP and whipping out a stethoscope and collecting information not usually shared with insurance companies.

[nuthatch]

Like you, Agate,I have been pestered by United Healthcare for more than a year to set up a health assessment at my home. I've received numerous letters in the mail and way too many phone calls, so much so that I don't answer any calls on my house line anymore. They don't have my cell number and never will! The last few letters have offered a Target gift card as an incentive. They don't want to take no for an answer!

It feels like an intrusion into the privacy of my home and also the insurance company intruding into my relationship with my doctor. They say they want to make sure I am getting proper care, but I know it's not really about me, but about cost savings for them. I feel I can manage my own healthcare and I don't think most doctors want to be "micromanaged" by an insurance company.

[Cherie]

I've been on Medicare for a little over 4 years now and have never gotten this type of communication..... Hmmmm....

[Virginia]

I have a United Health Care supplement and have never gotten this kind of call. I have my Prescription Part D with someone else. I wonder if you have one of the Management Plans. I have straight supplement Plan F which I pay hundred 30 something a month for.

[Sunshine]

I have Plan F BCBS

And BCBS Part D

[Virginia]

It could be that I am getting the calls and don't know it. I have been screening a lot of my calls for a long time. My phone rings and when I answer there is no one there and then there is a click, so I got tired of it and started looking at caller ID and if I don't recognize them I very often do not answer anymore. Many of these calls are out of state, but lately there have been a lot from my area code. I wonder if there is some kind of information that can be gleaned from these calls where no one says anything?

[Sunshine]

I pick up my phone and I say nothing. If it’s a legit called, they will say, “Miss smith are you there?”. If it’s an automatic call, the phone hangs up in about ten seconds. It doesn’t talk until the callee says something

[agate]

Telemarketers and others are finding out if there's a real person at your number, I think.

[nuthatch]

The program BBS speaks of sounds like it is a Blue Cross Blue Shield program, not a Medicare program.

Regarding those pesky telephone solicitors, I've learned to never say hello more than once if I answer the phone at all. Previously, the boiler room operations didn't pick up on just one hello, but always did if you said hello again. Now almost all solicitations are recordings, rather than real people. It's probably much cheaper than having big rooms full of employees getting hung up on.

The phone rang this morning and my husband picked up the land line without saying a thing. A familiar cheerful voice said " Oh I'm glad I caught you, I've been trying to reach you! Then she went into her sales spiel. It was a recording.
The same recorded voice has a few other tricks too, like asking if you're there, followed with a long pause! Fell for that one a few times. But she never leaves a message if you don't even pick up the phone. So I don't.
Then one day my husband got one of these calls on his cell. The next day I got the same solicitation on mine. Same voice, same name, young, friendly, cheerful Elizabeth! She could see that we had stayed at one of their resorts. uh...NEVER!
These calls have happened at lease twice a week for the past year!

Now they have learned a new trick. They are pirating other victim's phone numbers that then show up caller ID so that you can't identify them! Took me awhile to figure this one out.

Sometimes caller ID would show a local or a CA number, but it was ol' Elizabeth. Next call, she was IDed with a NY area code & number, or Florida or Texas or . . . She was absolutely everywhere!
Then one day someone called my cell and said that I had called them and they were returning my call. I hadn't touched my phone all day!
The person I spoke to was perplexed and apologized for bothering me. A few weeks later the same thing happened again, but it was a different confused person and number.

The next time that I answered a call and got dear ol' Elizabeth, IDed as a local phone number, I called the IDed number back. Guess what? It was answered by an older gentleman who had not called me.
Verizon says they can't do anything about it and it does no good to block the number since it IDs a different number every time this solicitor calls.
Long story short, I only answer numbers I know. If it's someone who needs to talk to me, they better leave a message to get a call back.

That solution doesn't work so well with my husband, he uses his phone much more than I do. So ol' Elizabeth continues to harass him. She changes her name from time to time, but the voice and spiel is the same. I think she goes by Jessica right now.
Thank goodness it's just this one solicitor that uses this bag of tricks!

What's this world coming to???

P.S. I'm on the do not call list! I have verified it. I have been on since 2006. It does not expire.

[Lazarus]

The program BBS speaks of sounds like it is a Blue Cross Blue Shield program, not a Medicare program.

Regarding those pesky telephone solicitors, I've learned to never say hello more than once if I answer the phone at all. Previously, the boiler room operations didn't pick up on just one hello, but always did if you said hello again. Now almost all solicitations are recordings, rather than real people. It's probably much cheaper than having big rooms full of employees getting hung up on.

The phone rang this morning and my husband picked up the land line without saying a thing. A familiar cheerful voice said " Oh I'm glad I caught you, I've been trying to reach you! Then she went into her sales spiel. It was a recording.
The same recorded voice has a few other tricks too, like asking if you're there, followed with a long pause! Fell for that one a few times. But she never leaves a message if you don't even pick up the phone. So I don't.
Then one day my husband got one of these calls on his cell. The next day I got the same solicitation on mine. Same voice, same name, young, friendly, cheerful Elizabeth! She could see that we had stayed at one of their resorts. uh...NEVER!
These calls have happened at lease twice a week for the past year!

Now they have learned a new trick. They are pirating other victim's phone numbers that then show up caller ID so that you can't identify them! Took me awhile to figure this one out.

Sometimes caller ID would show a local or a CA number, but it was ol' Elizabeth. Next call, she was IDed with a NY area code & number, or Florida or Texas or . . . She was absolutely everywhere!
Then one day someone called my cell and said that I had called them and they were returning my call. I hadn't touched my phone all day!
The person I spoke to was perplexed and apologized for bothering me. A few weeks later the same thing happened again, but it was a different confused person and number.

The next time that I answered a call and got dear ol' Elizabeth, IDed as a local phone number, I called the IDed number back. Guess what? It was answered by an older gentleman who had not called me.
Verizon says they can't do anything about it and it does no good to block the number since it IDs a different number every time this solicitor calls.
Long story short, I only answer numbers I know. If it's someone who needs to talk to me, they better leave a message to get a call back.

That solution doesn't work so well with my husband, he uses his phone much more than I do. So ol' Elizabeth continues to harass him. She changes her name from time to time, but the voice and spiel is the same. I think she goes by Jessica right now.
Thank goodness it's just this one solicitor that uses this bag of tricks!

What's this world coming to???

P.S. I'm on the do not call list! I have verified it. I have been on since 2006. It does not expire.

Thanks for that primer Virginia. It was cleverly written. We had Rachel from ‘card services’ for years.".automated calls from a friendly voice. John and I almost never answer the landline anymore. Like you, people have to leave us a message and we call back.

It has gotten harder to remember anyone’s number. People have so many! We have a landline, I have a cell, John has a cell.
Ha! I am not sure I know John’s number by heart but I remember my childhood phone number...Juniper 70704 (JU 70704)
Wish I could call that number and get someone home there.

[Sunshine]

Good post nuthatch!

Re Medicare vs BCBS. :
Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[Virginia]

I have Kirsten from card services calling from all kind of numbers and so many states. She has a perky voice and apparently really gets around.

[Howie]

I can still remember my phone number from when I was a kid, then it changed when I was a teen. I remember both of those still. But my new cell number, it took me forever to remember, and still have it written on a piece of paper I keep in my billfold, just incase I am rushed or pressured to know that number.

[MelissaKay]

There has been a few changes to stand alone prescription drug plans this year. Make sure to read up on them before you join/switch to a plan. The total out of pocket threshold and coverage benefits for generic vs brand drugs has changed. This article was super informative---> Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...