problems with VIA

[neville clynes]

Much of what follows is my experience with VIA.

The first "problem" with VIA and its contract with Columbia is that they refuse to administer, that is dole out,  the HSA contribution owed to a retiree , unless you obtain your MEDIGAP policy through them.

To a retiree,  the cost is the SAME , assuming the same insurance company and plan "letter". No matter where you obtain the policy,  if you go directly to the insurance company (for example Aetna) , if you go through any of the many agent companies contacting you by phone, email, snail mail, or if you go through VIA, it dos not matter the price to you is by law the same.

The problem lies with the pitifully few companies that VIA offers .In fact, this year and last year they offered only 2 companies, one excellent , UHC (United Health Care) through a AARP membership, the second a severely overpriced alternative , Humana.

VIA essentially forces all Columbia retirees to use UHC . I am not clear why this is the case but I suspect the fee VIA negotiates for each insured delivered to UHC , would be markedly reduced if there were other competitively priced companies offered as well. Essentially a monopoly delivered to UHC.

Now given that UHC/AARP is an excellent plan,  and remember all plans of  the same "letter"  (see "MEDIGAP-details" label) , no matter the company are identical ,in cost and what they cover,  why does it mater that VIA only offers essentially UHC.

This is where "churning" comes in. Essentially you cannot keep your old plan, if it is UHC and move to VIA. VIA cannot get their agents fee if you remain with the same company. Since many retirees have had UHC , this means they cannot get their HSA subsidy unless they switch .But switch to what , only Humana is available at a very high unnecessary premium (actually more than the 900/annum subsidy). 

If VIA had more choices, retirees with UHC could pick a similarly costing plan such as Emblem, get their subsidy and switch back to UHC the next year if they chose to . After being out for a FULL year VIA can get their agents fee again .

For NJ residents , it is even worse (see label "NY-versus-NJ"). No matter how many choices VIA had, "churning" rules mandate a change for VIA to be the agent and this opens these retirees are vulnerable new underwriting.

Other problems with VIA are the severely inconsistent knowledge base of their representatives. They are woefully inadequate at distinguishing benefits of different plans . They certainly cannot tell you about other insurance companies offerings. The NY. gov medicare site is much more informative.

If VIA, Columbia and UHC could come up with a streamlined plan to change the original "agent" from the retirees' current UHC policy to VIA, the problem would be solved. Michael Bloom has stated he is working on this but time is short. I have spent over 20 hours trying to get this done through UHC and Via and Columbia. If someone has been successful in a timely fashion please reply.

For now, Eli Noam (see Dr. Eli Noam label) has outlined some possibilities , still costly to try to enter the VIA "system" and get your subsidy. I (actually my wife Dr. Cosman) may need to forego the subsidy this year, change from UHC to Emblem (similarly priced) for a year and then go back to UHC through VIA next year. I will lose the 900 and have to do a lot of unnecessary paperwork.