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Does anyone know anything about this Extend Health that IBM is going to for it's benefits package? ?There was a "teaser" video on UTUBE a few days ago, and yesterday we got their "Getting Started" package in the mail. ?I went to their web site, and there is nothing there about services and costs until a person creates an account, and then sets up an appointment to create a benefits package. ? I'm becoming a bit of a pessimist over this whole ACA/Obamacare thing, and I'm getting mentally prepared for a substantial reduction in what we have been getting from IBM. ?I will be pleasantly surprised if this thing has any positive ramifications.

Crossposting from: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/IBM_PENSION/message/22689 Hey folks, My name is Spencer Ante. I cover technology for the Wall Street Journal. I am looking to speak with some IBM retirees to get their views on this Extend Health move. If you attended the San Jose briefing hosted by Extend Health I would also be interested in hearing your feedback on that session. I can be reached at spencer.ante @ wsj.com. Thanks in advance for considering the request. best regards, Spencer

I have not had my ID subjected to the new Yahoo neo format so far, so I get to see and do everything the same way I have for the last few years. Based on what I have read, I am lucky so far. Who has been neo-ized and who has not yet? Ronald Mobkas

Consider investing in them; I might! http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=TW See also: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Towers-Watson-Reviews-E301558.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_Watson

Isn't weird that posts from multiple IBM-related Yahoo groups are routinely posted to another non-Yahoo site, for many years? Anyone know of ANY other Yahoo groups whose posts are routinely bootlegged to serve another website??? Strange hobby, for sure!

I completely agree with your view of the moderators. Roughly 50% of my appends are censored by the moderators. I think the sole reason is that they simply disagree with the views that I express, even if the append does nothing more than politely complain about the selective censorship of the moderators. In order to make this board more worthwhile, let me suggest that you repost each append that anyone posts to the ibmpension board and then not censor responses you don't agree with. Obviously, appends that use foul language or that direct personal attacks towards other participants should be dealt with, perhaps initially with a warning and then through some other means of your choosing (which I think you should make known in advance to all participants). My hope is that contributors to the ibmpension board will eventually all migrate to this board and put Kathi et. al. out of business. My personal opinion is that many of the moderators of ibmpension simply like having the power of censorship (i.e. having control over what they allow/disallow on their board) for personal reasons. Just a thought.....

Today marks the first year anniversary of the day this group was created. From 0 to 2729 members in one year is pretty good progress. Today is also the first official day of Autumn.

The major questions so far seem to deal with the HRA. Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) Questions: Homework: We need to find and understand what are the IRS/government regulations concerning HRAs? Can IBM legally dictate that we have to purchase medical insurance through the company that “administers” the HRA in order for us to be eligible for reimbursement from a HRA? Questions for IBM (can ask EH but I think only an IBM answer can be believed [if in writing]): IF I purchase only health insurance through ExtendHealth but do not purchase drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through ExtendHealth, are any or all my Medicare, drug, vision, hearing or dental expenses eligible for reimbursement from my HRA? If my spouse has their own health insurance, can they purchase drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through ExtendHealth? If my spouse does not purchase any health insurance through ExtendHealth or only certain drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through them, are any or all my spouse's Medicare, medical, drug, vision, hearing or dental expenses eligible for reimbursement from my HRA? In the event of my death, what percentage of the annual IBM contribution to my HRA would continue for my spouse's HRA, and what are the minimum requirements for my spouse to receive disbursements from that HRA? To: ibmretireeissues@... From: elueke@... Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 22:42:01 -0500 Subject: Re: [ibmretireeissues] ExtendHealth May Be Limiting Our Choices While Not Adding Any Value! I am not surprised that there is no value add from Extend Health. Use them to get the HRA, and what about vision and dental insurance? Might that be a reason to use Extend Health? I'm going to their introductory meeting on Monday, and am going to take along a list of questions, so am willing to ask, provided of course I get the chance -! If I interpret the information that has been provided so far, ExtendHealth is nothing more than a medical insurance salesman and an administrator of the IBM funded HRAs. They may be an “agent of record” for our health insurance but, I think, that only gives them access to our information but does not carry any real fiduciary responsibility. My opinion is: Have no illusions! ExtendHealth works for IBM and is focused on their own profits, not on helping us. The 2014 health insurance information is not up on the ExtendHealth website yet, but I was interested in what they offered for 2013. Disclaimer: Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance. I went to medicare.gov and also anonymously to the ExtendHealth website and this is what I found. The Medicare website lists 52 approved Medicare Advantage plans (I did not consider Medigap plans because the government does not list individual plans, just categories) for the Denver, CO area while ExtendHealth only lists 27 of these same plans for the same area. A further breakout is in the table below: 2013 POLICY Medicare.gov ExtendHealth Drug Only 24 15 62.50% Health & Drug 20 9 45.00% Health Only 8 3 37.50% 52 27 51.90% There is no apparent pattern in the plans ExtendHealth chose not to carry. They is no pattern by either type, cost or rating. Also, there is absolutely no difference in the cost of these plans between the government and ExtendHealth websites, so ExtendHealth adds no value by negotiating prices. My personal guess is that the plans excluded did not offer to pay ExtendHealth enough commission, but that is only my personal opinion. While that is a prerogative of an independent company, it is not in our best interest! IBM has chosen to force retirees into purchasing their individual health insurance plans through ExtendHealth by “Please note: You must enroll in a medical plan through Extend Health to receive an HRA contribution.” [IBM ExtendHealth Announcement Newsletter, page 2] If this pattern continues into the offerings for 2014, this is definitely one of the issues I intend to raise with IBM directly. (Yea, I know, lots of luck!)

Once again, IBMpension is in a cycle of meta-discussion about individuals and not the pension program.

Imagine if Medicare/ACA/IRS/Aetna tracked my BMI and then lowered my monthly premium for staying healthy! http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/185961952.html?lc=Smart "In a letter to staffers, managers announced a $13.33 credit every two weeks for folks who meet a 'weight target' or BMI of 30." We need a national "BMI Appreciation Day", perhaps right after the new "Gun Appreciation Day" on Jan 19th!!!!! For the low-information demographic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index Regarding wellness, I challenge all who post to include their BMI. If you do not know your current BMI, and are using up IBM's self-insurance money, shame! BMI here is 30, working on getting to 29. BP at last blood donor appointment was 120/64. (This is a partial re-post from another Yahoo Group)

http://eatthis.menshealth.com/slideshow/print-list/187058 is very helpful. Note: I am not on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/07/27/feds-state-reach-agreement-to-investigate-food-stamp-fraud/

News for 110,000 retirees

Here is where I have to not attack Obama. He is not different in my view than any other president with one exception, he makes a very good set of statements about nailing those evil rich, while behind the scenes getting the middle class. His brand of social warfare/division is pitting the rich against the poor with us in the middle sucking it up. No different than any prior administration, just prettier words and he gets to play the Bush excuse card over and over.

". . . so now you know the whole story."? Well, they only managed to answer 1/2 of question #4. Questions for IBM (can ask EH but I think only an IBM answer can be believed [if in writing]): IF I purchase only health insurance through ExtendHealth but do not purchase drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through ExtendHealth, are any or all my Medicare, drug, vision, hearing or dental expenses eligible for reimbursement from my HRA? If my spouse has their own health insurance, can they purchase drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through ExtendHealth? If my spouse does not purchase any health insurance through ExtendHealth or only certain drug, vision, hearing and/or dental insurance through them, are any or all my spouse's Medicare, medical, drug, vision, hearing or dental expenses eligible for reimbursement from my HRA? In the event of my death, what percentage of the annual IBM contribution to my HRA would continue for my spouse's HRA, and what are the minimum requirements for my spouse to receive disbursements from that HRA? From: no_reply@... To: ibmpension@... Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 13:02:17 -0700 Subject: [IBM Pension] HRA letter arrived and is it funny Well I just got home from a round of golf and opened the letter from Dr. Rhee on the HRA . It's pretty funny and must have taken a group of staff pukes to put it together. Being I fall in the $3000 a year group it looks like the swizzle of the dollars was pretty interesting. To cut to the chase we will get a form in Nov and we need to make a decision on our spouse. If we choose to have our spouses receive HRA cover after our death then our new HRA will be $2374 a year. Upon our death if we die before our spouse she will get a subsidy of $1187 a year for the rest of her life. If we choose not to give the spouse coverage after our death we will have $3000 in the HRA to use but when we die the spouse gets nothing. I'm still laughing so now you know the whole story. They must have been working on this for at least a year. I like the spin LOL. Good luck , Life is Great

Per the IBM ExtendHealth Announcement Newsletter, Page 7: "The HRA represents IBM's annual contribution to your health care costs, and will not roll over year to year. Any balance at the end of the calendar year will be forfeited." From: larryrgeorge@... To: ibmpension@... Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 15:15:40 -0700 Subject: [IBM Pension] RE: HRA letter arrived and is it funny I got my letter from IBM today too. I fall in the $3,500 group, since I retired June 30, 1991. But since I want to ensure my wife also has this help, should I die before her, I am going to have to take the reduced amount of $2,600 a year. But I have a further question that is not covered in this letter. If we have any unused money in our HRA at year end, does the remaining amount carry over to the following year? Because if you have a Health Savings Account (HSA), any unused money carries over. Because you might not have a lot of expenses in 2014, but you could have major expenses in 2015 or later. No, I have not been drinking. I would just like to be surprised and find out that IBM is doing something good for their retirees. But then why should they start doing so now? ---In ibmpension@..., <ibmpension@...> wrote: Well I just got home from a round of golf and opened the letter from Dr. Rhee on the HRA . It's pretty funny and must have taken a group of staff pukes to put it together. Being I fall in the $3000 a year group it looks like the swizzle of the dollars was pretty interesting. To cut to the chase we will get a form in Nov and we need to make a decision on our spouse. If we choose to have our spouses receive HRA cover after our death then our new HRA will be $2374 a year. Upon our death if we die before our spouse she will get a subsidy of $1187 a year for the rest of her life. If we choose not to give the spouse coverage after our death we will have $3000 in the HRA to use but when we die the spouse gets nothing. I'm still laughing so now you know the whole story. They must have been working on this for at least a year. I like the spin LOL. Good luck , Life is Great

Looked all over my EH Account site and can not find a "Funds and Claims" tab? ? ? From: no_reply@... To: ibmpension@... Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2013 10:54:40 -0700 Subject: [IBM Pension] RE: RE: Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA lobosphoto, 'Click on the "Funds and Claims" tab' Thanks! I haven't received my letter and didn't know that I could just check on the EH website. I am a bit bewildered though. Somewhere I read a post that quoted someone from EH saying the HSA amount was based on a complicated formula. And of course, the initial package I got from IBM didn't state what my HSA payment was going to be. Then there was chatter on this forum suggesting that younger people and singles might get less. That appears to have been wishful thinking by those who are married and older. According to the EH website, my HSA is $3000. I'm single and turn 65 in January. The only reason I can think of for the HSA amount mystery was a desire to get us to sign up early. But Towers Watson is clearly not ready for us. In my state (CT), there is no 2014 information for any plan available. I was also amused to that the Towers Watson website classifies me as not eligible for Medicare. Why? Because the entry portal to their shopping area rejects you as ineligible for medicare if you were born after Jan 1, 1949 when the test should be on or before Jan 31. Simple coding error? Sure but the textual error message has the same fault. To me, the fact that most of their 2014 sales information has not been loaded, in spite of their written commuication that it would be. And the way they appear to be handling this is to have individuals call their center to find out does not bode well for their execution. Whats even worse, is when I called in 8 am this morning, the person that I talked to thought that most of the plan information was up. So Tower Watson/IBM is not only not communicating with us, they're not even communicating with their front-line customer support people. I'm underwhelmed so far. rejects is programmed to reject folks wi ---In ibmpension@..., <ibmpension@...> wrote: Click on the "Funds and Claims" tab ---In ibmpension@..., <ibmpension@...> wrote: Dumb Question: Where and how do you see your HRA account?? Brian SanbornGroton, MA 01450

1-855-359-7380 is the telephone number contained in the ExtendHealth Getting Started booklet that IBM sent me. From: LOPATKA@... To: ibmpension@... Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:30:30 -0400 Subject: [IBM Pension] ExtendHealth Called me ? ? ? Someone "puporting" to represent ExtendHealth called ME a little while ago . . . and was almost unintelligible. Being suspicious I asked to call them back & was given the number 1-855-359-7380. I called that number & asked the person answering the phone to "prove" they represented Extend Health "before" I would give them any personal information to "verify". They gave me platitudes about ExtendHealth - so I simply told them that I would contact them when I was ready as instructed in the mailing we received. I was then informed it might take 2-3 hours if I waited any lomger . . . I don't know if the call was legitimate or what a caller would have to do to prove they actually represented ExtendHealth. <Alan Lopatka>

As opposed to others, I will not want to make a financial and health care decision until I know if IBM is going to honor their commitment to fund a HRA (for $3,000 in my case). The only reason I am looking at ExtendHealth is because of the IBM funded HRA. Without the HRA, as I posted earlier, I think there is no advantage, and maybe even a disadvantage, of going through ExtendHealth for any of my health insurance needs. To: ibmretireeissues@... From: lastdino1@... Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 15:39:41 -0700 Subject: RE: RE: RE: [ibmretireeissues] RE: [IBM Pension] Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA Sorry I didn't mean to imply that the money was there but only that you had an approved allocation. If there was nothing there then I would be concerned. But remember one day in the future it will be gone and not because you used it. Life is Great ---In ibmretireeissues@..., <ibmretireeissues@...> wrote: If you check more closely you will see it says you have an annual allotment of that amount and that the start date is Jan 2014. It's not a case of having it in your account today. Just sayin' . . . Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone From: lastdino1@... <lastdino1@...>; To: <ibmretireeissues@...>; Subject: RE: RE: [ibmretireeissues] RE: [IBM Pension] Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA Sent: Wed, Oct 2, 2013 9:22:35 PM I would recommend you call and either get it corrected or find out why you were not included. I registered early last month and on Oct. 1st the account showed the $3000 subsidy. If it's not there you may have a problem. Get it fixed ASAP. Life is Great ---In ibmretireeissues@..., <ibmretireeissues@...> wrote: I'm guessing since your HRA won't be funded until January, it's just not available yet. Heck, some of the Humana plans don't even have data available yet since their sign up period starts on Oct 15, according to messages on their site. It will probably require a little more patience. Duane Sent from Yahoo! Mail for iPhone From: retired_engineer@... <retired_engineer@...>; To: ibm_retiree <ibm_retiree@...>; ibmpension <ibmpension@...>; ibmpensionissues <ibmpensionissues@...>; ibmretiree <ibmretiree@...>; ibmretireeissues <ibmretireeissues@...>; Subject: [ibmretireeissues] RE: [IBM Pension] Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA Sent: Wed, Oct 2, 2013 9:08:25 PM My profile has been 100% completed for some time and I have had an appointment with ExtendHealth also for some time. But, when I sign into My Account I can not find a "Funds and Claims" tag. The link provided by clk_griswo?ld (below) worked! However, when I got there and signed in I got the message: "There are no known funding arrangements. If you feel this is incorrect please contact us". So everyone needs to check their HRA and if there is no "Funds and Claims" tag use the link below. From: no_reply@... To: ibmpension@... Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 11:49:47 -0700 Subject: [IBM Pension] Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA https://www.extendhealth.com/my-account/funds-and-claims ---In ibmpension@..., <ibmpension@...> wrote: Looked all over my EH Account site and can not find a "Funds and Claims" tab? ? ?

Retired between January 1, 1992 and January 1, 1997. with 25 years service. But why do you want need this information? To: ibmretiree@... From: no_reply@... Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 15:51:10 -0700 Subject: [IBM Retiree] RE: RE: [IBM Pension] Re: EH site up for Medicare Plans, others MIA Tell us when your retired, age, years of employment at IBM, etc. ---In ibmretiree@..., <ibmretiree@...> wrote: My profile has been 100% completed for some time and I have had an appointment with ExtendHealth also for some time. But, when I sign into My Account I can not find a "Funds and Claims" tag. The link provided by clk_griswo?ld (below) worked! However, when I got there and signed in I got the message: "There are no known funding arrangements. If you feel this is incorrect please contact us".

IRS says can rollover, so this is an IBM Plan rule. To: ibmretiree@... From: gfretwell@... Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2013 10:50:43 -0400 Subject: Re: [IBM Retiree] RE: [IBM Pension] RE: HRA letter arrived and is it funny Are the HRA rollover rules just IBM or is this an IRS rule In a message dated 10/1/2013 7:53:36 AM Eastern Daylight Time, JustPutt2@... writes: It's my guess that some Armonk Bean Counter said that, 'If we make them expire each year then we don't have to keep track of the on-going balances'.... Think of all the money we will save. And there will be no long trail for the Auditors to track.