You’ve provided great benefits and guidance to help your employees make important health care decisions throughout their career. As they prepare to transition to retirement, you may think there isn’t much you can do to assist with their future health insurance needs. However, as your soon-to-be retirees begin asking themselves, “How do I make sure I have coverage in the future?” you can continue to guide them.
There are several options, but one thing for sure is that they have to have health insurance coverage within a certain timeframe to avoid lifelong penalties. Make the move to Medicare easy for them and simple for you.
So how do you help them begin?
Understand all the parts
Original Medicare, the coverage that is managed by the federal government, consists of two parts — Part A which covers hospital costs, and Part B which covers medical care. What your employees will ask is “How do I cover everything else?” There are six MedicareBlue SupplementSM plans available to cover additional costs based on your retirees’ needs. You can learn all about those plans by searching "Medicare Options guide" by registering for Employer Connection to access the Wellmark Marketing Toolkit Secure Site.
Beyond medical coverage
In addition to covering medical costs, there will be questions about prescription costs. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s MedicareBlueSM Rx is an easy-to-use, Part D prescription drug plan (PDP) designed to help manage the cost of prescription drugs and protect employees from unexpected drug costs. Dental, vision and hearing plans are also available to make sure your employees have well-rounded health care coverage.
Taking the next step
Continue the great job you’ve done helping your employees make important decisions — without creating more work for yourself. Wellmark has a dedicated Medicare resource to guide you through the options available to your employees. Simply contact your Wellmark representative or email us at blueatwork@wellmark.com Send Email.
