Adventures in Humana Land....pt D

[kaneohe]

Today I received my card for my 2020 Walmart Value Rx drug plan. It requested a callback to confirm that I had received it. I called the number and a computer answered and requested the member ID. I input it by dialing in the number . No response. I then spoke it w/ the same non-response. I repeated each a number of times. Only once did it repeat it back but when I confirmed it , it said nothing and did not proceed. I called it deaf and dumb but no response to that either.

I then called a rep to see what was going to happen w/ my current autopay.
She said I didn't have autopay and when I said I did, she said it got cancelled for some reason?? after the Oct. payment but that she could reinstall it for me.
What about January w/ the new plan? She said it would change automatically to the new amount........so now the wait.....will it resume for Nov & Dec & will it
cancel the old payment and install the new one in January.

She also claimed that there was no problem w/no confirmation of the new card because of Deaf & Dumb..........no cancellation like credit cards do when you don't confirm receipt. We shall see..........

Another interesting thing.......all of the numbers on the new card seem to be the same as the old card (except for one CMS number in lower right corner where all digits the same except last 3 numbers). I would have thought that
something that distinguished the 2 plans would show up.

 

[rodi]

Humana has lost a lot of credibility in my book with their switching people off the inexpensive plan and moving them to the super expensive plan.

DH just got his new card for the less expensive plan 2 days ago.

 

[CRLLS]

IMO, Humana wants to obfuscate and confuse. They do not list the name of the plan on the card. FYI, the plan number includes those last 3 digits. They are different from the 2019 Walmart plan as you have observed. The newly named Humana Premier Rx Plan carries the same complete number as the previous 2019 Walmart Rx plan.

For 2020, we both switched to WellCare Wellness Rx plan. It is the same price, $13.20, as the low priced 2020 Humana Walmart Value Rx plan. Walmart is still a preferred pharmacy. Osco Pharmacy is an additional preferred pharmacy. We didn't want to reward Humana for such bait and switch actions. We'll see what happens in 2021.

 

[audreyh1]

IMO, Humana wants to obfuscate and confuse. They do not list the name of the plan on the card. FYI, the plan number includes those last 3 digits. They are different from the 2019 Walmart plan as you have observed. The newly named Humana Premier Rx Plan carries the same complete number as the previous 2019 Walmart Rx plan.

For 2020, we both switched to WellCare Wellness Rx plan. It is the same price, $13.20, as the low priced 2020 Humana Walmart Value Rx plan. Walmart is still a preferred pharmacy. Osco Pharmacy is an additional preferred pharmacy. We didn't want to reward Humana for such bait and switch actions. We'll see what happens in 2021.

Again, I am just so disgusted with this bait and switch renaming tactic by Humana. Something so blatant has got to backfire.

 

[marko]

On another thread I mentioned that "I think" I signed up for the Humana $13.20 plan last week. (the web site was acting funky at the time)

Not having heard from them I went online and found that I had not made any changes, or at least they haven't received any changes.

OK, but here's the kicker. According to the Humana web site, "You recently renewed your Humana coverage". If I was careless or less cynical, I'd have assumed that the change went through (thanks to this forum for making me cynical on this outfit) and I'd have been stuck with a $60 premium.

I will give them somewhat of a pass due to the funky website last week but still....

So, yes, I'm an idiot for staying with these creeps but since I never reach the deductible I'm mostly doing this to stay in coverage and avoid a penalty later on.

Caveat Emptor!

 

[athena53]

Interesting about the bait and switch. One concern I've always had about offering cheaper, high-deductible plans and more expensive ones with lower out-of-pocket is that naturally those of us who aren't on expensive meds will buy the high-deductible plan since we need to have coverage and Stuff Happens. That means the more-expensive plan gets populated by people with expensive prescriptions. (In the insurance business they call it "adverse selection".)

I can see why they want to move more of the low-cost insureds into the more expensive plan. It keeps the premiums down.

 

[CRLLS]

Interesting about the bait and switch. One concern I've always had about offering cheaper, high-deductible plans and more expensive ones with lower out-of-pocket is that naturally those of us who aren't on expensive meds will buy the high-deductible plan since we need to have coverage and Stuff Happens. That means the more-expensive plan gets populated by people with expensive prescriptions. (In the insurance business they call it "adverse selection".)

I can see why they want to move more of the low-cost insureds into the more expensive plan. It keeps the premiums down.

Or it is simply a money grab. As a company, I see no incentive for Humana to subsidize the more expensive plans with low need users. If there were, there would be only one policy that Humana would offer. We'll never know just why they decided to do this. Maybe someone on their Board of Directors will write a book after his/her tenure and we will find out for certain.

 

[kaneohe]

Update on OP: I wasn't able to tell Humana that I received my card for 2020 due to "Deaf & Dumb" yesterday and didn't want to give them an excuse for canceling the card so I called back today.

Today it mostly worked so I give them credit for either fixing it after some feedback OR having an intermittent system that sometimes works.

I also discovered (w/help of Humana rep) a way to see the status of the pharmacies (preferred/standard/out-of-network) at a (LONG) glance
instead of just being able to select 2 at a time on medicare.gov.
Described here in post 6 http://www.early-retirement.org/for...ta-in-a-different-way-100486.html#post2316649

I only sampled 9 of the 35 pages but that sample suggests that Walmart may be the only preferred cost sharing pharmacy in the Humana Walmart Value plan..............not a big surprise, I guess. Conclusion applies only to the zip code I entered, and there may be more on the 26 pages I didn't look at.

 

[kaneohe]

Just curious......as noted in OP, I switched from old Humana Walmart plan to
new Humana Walmart plan for 2020 using medicare.gov. I was surprised that when I talked to Humana rep after that change that my autopay from bank for 2019 had been cancelled for some reason.

I think I know that when you switch Rx plans that you don't have to notify the old plan.......that the new company/Medicare somehow takes care of that. I wonder though if that includes canceling the autopay for the current yr. which would be an undesired bug.

Anyone switch Walmart plans using medicare.gov and know that your autopay is still active for 2019?

 

[molly312]

We have had so many problems with Humana Drug Plan in the past that we are paying for a higher priced plan just to avoid Humana Part D!

 

[oldtrig]

My wife and I both went with the lower plan. She got her card which was the correct one. I got mine and it as for the higher plan.

Five hours on the phone yesterday and the last person I talked to said all was set for the $13.20 a month plan. For some reason I just didn't trust the person I last talked with so i called back at 7pm last night.

I was told that it showed I had enrolled in the lower price plan but had been removed and put back in higher plan. I am in total confusion.

They are supposed to call me at 8 am this morning. We will see. I got to say this should never happen to seniors.

I have been with Humana for 7 years and this has never happened before.



I am almost the point where I might go with an Advantage plan which everything would be in one policy. I am too old to be dealing with this. I can afford to pay out of pocket on these Advantage plans. I also do understand if I were not to be happy with going to Advantage then next enrollment I might not get back in Medigap and if I did it would be high. At this point I really don't care.

 

[kaneohe]

oldtrig.......you might want to speak to a supervisor if it is possible. They tend to know more than a first-line rep.

different field....same message. I have been trying to get
IRA CD funds transferred from Bank A at maturity to Bank B so have been monitoring the individual steps. Yesterday I asked rep at A what status what. Rep told me that CD had been renewed instead of sending funds to Bank B as requested. I had previously been told that the funds had been sent on 11/13 to bank B but since they had not yet been received, I decided to check again.

I eventually insisted on speaking to the IRA dept at bank A.
They told me that the funds had been sent to bank B. Not enough data to know who is right but,in general, a higher level or more relevant dept is more likely to know vs. a 1st level rep where you often need to know the answer before you ask the question.

 

[oldtrig]

Thanks for the help. I was finally able to get the part D plan I wanted . The card is now in my billfold.