AARP Medicare Rx Preferred from UHC (PDP) or Cigna Healthcare Saver Rx (PDP)

[CincyDave]

Anyone use either of these plans, and have any thoughts on them? Shopping for a drug plan for DW and these are the lowest estimated total cost for her prescriptions, The AARP plan has a 2 star rating and the Cigna plan has a 2.5 star rating on Medicare.gov. The low ratings concerns me a bit. Just looking for someone with real life experience with either of these plans.
Thanks.

 

[savory]

I am assuming you referring to the AARP plan managed by UHC. We had it 3 years ago before going on Advantage. We decided to go back to Original and just signed up with AARP UHC. Still waiting for DW to get underwriting approval. I have been approved.

My experience goes back a few years. My prostate surgery was when I was insured with UHC. They meet what I believed was their obligation. DW had one extraordinary issue and that was handled per the agreement. We currently have no reason to not use them as our insurers.

I had Cigna for dental for many years and no problems with them.

 

[audreyh1]

For Part D plans you almost never deal with the insurance company. You use the pharmacies they have in network, even better if it’s a preferred pharmacy, and you generally deal with the pharmacy.

 

[CincyDave]

Thanks savory. For Medigap we are both going with the AARP UHC plan G. Strictly looking at the drug plan for DW now.

 

[CincyDave]

For Part D plans you almost never deal with the insurance company. You use the pharmacies they have in network, even better if it’s a preferred pharmacy, and you generally deal with the pharmacy.

Thanks Audreyh1.... I was kind of thinking the same thing. We used to use Walgreens until my employer switched to CVS only option. We liked Walgreen's better and they are much closer to us.

 

[audreyh1]

When you compared your part D plans did you look up the the preferred in network pharmacies for each plan? And see the drug costs at those pharmacies?

 

[CincyDave]

When you compared your part D plans did you look up the the preferred in network pharmacies for each plan? And see the drug costs at those pharmacies?

I did. I have the Wellcare Value script $0 premium and $0 costs for my drugs. DW has more prescriptions and one is a newer diabetes drug for which there are no generics. In some plans that one diabetes drug was driving almost all the costs and in other plans it was lower, but the other drugs were higher. Very confusing. I did just stumble across another thread about using Good RX or similar plan in conjunction with another part D plan. Will have to explore that option as well.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, that’s an informative thread to read and study.

 

[sengsational]

I wonder if the 2 and 2.5 star ratings come from people who are driven by their experience with the "utilization" rules...those are the hoops they make you jump through to get the drug you're actually prescribed. It's not in their best interest to make it easy.

The idea to come on here and collect experience on how successfully people have been at navigating the bureaucracy at different companies seems like a good way to help select between similar offerings.