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 way we have since day one. We use telephones, Zoom, screen share tools, electronically sign documents with DocuSign, eFax when we need to, and even employ FaceTime if need be. We joke that we’ve been waiting for the world to catch up with us since this is precisely how we’ve worked since day one.

As our business grows, we constantly learn the nuances of Medicare that you likely can’t learn on your own. We get familiar with plans in our Michigan backyard (some of us are based in Howell, Michigan). We have the auto’s Big Three in Detroit and their lack of a true retirement health insurance option for salaried employees. We have Beaumont Health that doesn’t have a very good option at all and we get many folks from Beaumont calling us. We have Medicare Advantage Plans such as Priority Health, BCBSM, HAP which are our “local” plans so we know how they may (or may not) work for our clients nationally. We have school teachers with coverage through the State — they really don’t need us! We may coach them through a few suggestions but they don’t need us (they have a good plan available to them). On and on and on……

Outside of Michigan, since Medigap plans are federally standardized, it’s a rather simple conversation. We can use the screen share, sign documents from thousands of miles away and be a very responsive agent for your ongoing needs. Works like a charm.

So many people need help in this area of transitioning to the Medicare system. I just read an article about a manufacturing company in Petoskey, Michigan closing it’s doors due to Covid-19. My first thought is for the 65+ folks that need to transition to Medicare rather quickly. It can be confusing and those are exactly the people that we guide. So, if you know anyone at Michigan Maple Block Co —> they might need our help 🙂

That WSJ article prompted this blog. There’s so much to do in our own backyard of Michigan related to Medicare that it’s mind-boggling. We have an “older” state with over 2 million residents being age 65+.

We have our work cut out for us. Have a good week! If you’d like to talk with us? Schedule here.