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Trying times! Medicare itself comes with a whole package of possible problems and no really great instruction manual. That's why we at Giardini Medicare are essentially the instruction manual! And, along those lines, in a few weeks we'll be able to reveal a helpful new tool that we've created for people making the transition to the Medicare system. Stay tuned there. One call yesterday, went …
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Working From Home – As Always; from Michigan….
Over the past couple of months as we've talked to people over the phone helping them with their transition to the Medicare system, we get the question "how are you all handling things with Covid - are you working?". Answer: Oh my goodness, we're busier than ever. #1 layoffs #2 early retirements "just because I'm done" #3 people still turn 65 each day. How are we doing things? The …
Should I retire early? Medicare implications….
Covid-19 has stormed into our world causing a whole bunch of implications! As if you didn't know... In our world, we're getting lots of calls from people either electing to retire or having to retire. A recent phone conversation played out like this. Jane and John are still working, They are 66 years old. They each have their health insurance through Jane's employer and it's good …
Mistake after mistake after mistake….
It feels like we go in waves with Medicare. We suddenly have a week where there is a rash of "Medicare Mistakes" made by consumers. As we talk daily as a group of Medicare agents, we know that just about every one of the situations/mistakes could have been avoided had the consumer called us or someone like us PRIOR to doing or not doing what they did or did not do. Sounds pretty simple, right? …
*#&$@ Happens
We at times speak at corporate offices when HR will bring in a Medicare "lunch and learn". These are excellent sessions for employees that are close to, or ARE, Medicare eligible to start understanding how the Medicare system works in comparison to their workplace coverage. Now, as we talk through Medicare, the coverage, how it works, how much it costs ----> remember that our goal is to teach …
Milestone Birthdays… as told from a 24 year old
As a 24 year old, people often say to me “enjoy being young, 30 is the last good birthday you have” etc., etc. But, lately, I've come to realize that this may not necessarily be true! When working with Medicare beneficiaries and asking if they are AARP members, sometimes they will tell me “No I don’t want that card. It'll make me feel old,”. I have to laugh because I was so excited to be …
Transition
Retirement. Change. Transition. Change. Stress. It's all bundled together. Zero in on the healthcare/Medicare piece and we can help make life easier. There's a method to the Medicare madness. When you do things at the right time, in the right way, with the right forms, with the proper knowledge --- Medicare can almost feel "easy". I know what you're thinking. Impossible, right? Wrong. Day in; …
COBRA and Medicare
We make a pretty big deal about COBRA and Medicare when we're talking to people. Our team's ears are trained to "perk up" when we hear the word "COBRA". To an employee that is separating from an employer for whatever reason, their ears don't perk up as ours do. They are concerned with keeping their insurance coverage at a hopefully affordable price. That's seriously all that they are thinking …
Educate, educate, educate….
This time of year can get extra nutty for us as the TV lights up with Medicare commercial. Joe Namath is talking about all the of free things someone can get with their choice of plans and more. In our world, people retire and turn 65 every single day of the year so, yes, this time of year adds some extra chaos but it's really just a media blitz. Kind of like Medicare's Christmas season. The …
Learning, learning & learning…
After years in the Medicare space, we constantly come back to the fact that Medicare "just" requires a bit of learning about so that you (a) do the right thing and; sometimes more importantly (b) avoid doing the wrong thing. Lately, it seems that we've uncovered many Medicare errors that really could have been avoided by the consumer talking to someone like our firm before they enrolled into the …