Medicare Advantage Scams
Yet another reason that NYPAN is fighting to pass the NY Health Act!
SEIU Aetna Medicare Advantage and the Attack on Traditional Medicare
Carolyn Adessa worked for fifteen years as an art therapist for the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center.
When she retired in 2010, she went on traditional Medicare.
But sometime in 2014 or 2015 her union, SEIU 1199, without her consent, switched her out of traditional Medicare.
This came at a time when Adessa was battling stage four lymphoma at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
“I was treating this cancer at Sloan Kettering when the union, without my knowledge or approval, switched me out of Medicare,” Adessa said. “This resulted in an incredible amount of stress, and hours on the telephone, in an attempt to have my enrollment in basic Medicare restored. I was sick as a dog. I was going to work every day. Apparently they had sent me a letter saying they were going to take me out of traditional Medicare unless I opted out. And I missed the letter. Suddenly, my bills weren’t being paid. I had to contact my Congressman to get it back.”
“I continue to be outraged by the fact that Medicare would allow any entity to disenroll people from the federal Medicare program under any circumstance,” Adessa said.
Then in November 2020, the union came after her again.
“I started getting letters saying that unless we filled in paperwork to opt out of the Aetna Medicare Advantage program we were going to be in this wonderful Advantage plan,” Adessa said. “My mailbox was deluged with material. Everyday my mailbox was stuffed with these letters. I was just so angry.’
“Why does the federal government allow private insurers to use the word Medicare to sell private insurance plans?” Adessa asks. ‘Most seniors don’t understand that when they sign up for — with the Advantage plan they’re effectively signing out of the traditional Medicare insurance program.”
A spokesperson for SEIU 1199 confirmed that in fact all of the more than 56,000 SEIU 1199 retirees are put into the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan unless they affirmatively opt out. Fewer than one percent have opted out. And in order to opt out, the retirees must meet certain conditions.