(502) 742-4979 | info@ImagineInsAdv.com

Love us? How to leave us a Google review!

Reading reviews for products or professionals that you want to use is always a wise choice because it gives you confidence backed by other people’s experience.  We work hard to clearly and fully present plan material when you meet with us so that you can fully understand your options and make the the best coverage choice for yourself. We also create take-home papers and packets that reiterate all the points we discussed and an overview of your coverage so that you have quick and easy reference materials if you have questions afterwards.   If you’ve been happy with the service we provide, please consider writing us a review on Google. We would love to know that you’ve benefited from working with us and want other members of our community to know that they are in good, trusted hands when they call us for help.  We appreciate your support and look forward to being here for you in the future if your coverage needs change or if you have questions about your plans.

In the service industry, not always is a professional’s style a right fit for everyone, so we are sorry if we didn’t live up to your expectations, but if you haven’t been happy with our service, please consider reaching out to us to let us know where we fell short instead of leaving a bad review. And remember that if you were unhappy with your insurance carrier, it wasn’t necessarily our actions that resulted in that experience. Prior to recommending a plan for you, we take information that you provided us to choose plans that best fit your actual needs. We do our best to only place you with carriers that we have good experience with and that we feel comfortable recommending to ourselves and our own families. If you have a bad experience with your insurance carrier, we would like to know so that we can be alerted if a particular carrier is more difficult to work with than others. We use that feedback to adjsut our recommendations in the future and to follow up with those carrier’s higher-ups, which helps the organization fix their deficiancies.

Here is how to leave us a review on Google:
  1. You need a Google account to write a review, so sign into Google with your account or create one.   You sign in at www.google.com.
  2. Search for “Imagine Insurance Advisors” in the search bar.
  3. We will appear at the top of the search results. On the right of the search results page will be a box with our information in it.
  4. Look for “Reviews” in that box.
  5. Click on “Write a review”.
  6. You can rate us with stars and leave a comment.
  7. When you are finished, click “Post” and you are done.
  8. Thank you for your review! It’s been delightful working with you.

“I get calls saying there are changes to Medicare.”

Throughout the year, we take calls from clients saying that someone called them saying things along the lines of “there are changes to Medicare and you’re not receiving the benefits you are entitled to,” or “if you have the Plan F, it is going away and you will lose your coverage.”  Today, I want to clarify what these people mean and what they want from you so that you aren’t worried for your coverage or make a change to your coverage that may be irreversible.

“My Plan F will be cancelled?!?!”

Firstly, NO. If you have the Plan F, you can keep it and it will NOT be cancelled or taken away from you. The news you hear about F going away pertains to people turning 65 AFTER 1/1/2020. There are lots of agents and call centers that are using false statements about the F “going away” in order to try to get you to buy something from them. The hard and quick fact is that if you are turning 65 after 1/1/2020, you will not be able to buy the F. That is all. Again, if you have the F, you get to keep it. Some agents and call centers are also assuming that Plan F premiums will skyrocket and are using that as a high-pressure sales tactic. When we look historically at other plans that were discontinued and their rate of premium increase, it does not justify the assumption that the F will “blow up.”  If you have concern for the future of your rate stability, we can discuss with you the option of moving down to the Plan G (same as the F except you pay the Part B deductible) and if you would pass underwriting (health questions/recent medical history) to do so.

 

“Changes to Medicare and your plan doesn’t cover them.”

Every single time someone calls you or sends you mail that says there are changes to Medicare’s coverage and that your plan has holes/doesn’t cover new services, they are going to try to sell you a Medicare Advantage plan (MAPD) or a home-healthcare policy.  There have been no changes in Original Medicare’s coverage that a Medicare Supplement would not cover. When Medicare updates its deductibles/copays/co-insurance, your Supplement automatically reflects any changes and your benefits remain the same. Advantage plans and home-healthcare policies are not bad things, but they may not be suitable for your particular situation or be the type of insurance you want because the costs are different.

A lot of marketing callers like to tout the routine vision/dental/hearing and over-the-counter benefits of a Medicare Advantage plan, which are great additional benefits that you don’t get with a Supplement, but you have to make the trade-off of always having copays for visits/services and a network of doctors. Lots of people love their Medicare Advantage plan and the extra benefits that you can access from them, but MAPDs aren’t for everyone and not everyone feels comfortable with the potentially high accrual of copays in the event that a serious or unexpected change happens in your health. If you think that your Supplement is no longer suitable for you and would like to investigate a Medicare Advantage plan, call us because we have been here for you and always look out for your best interest. We want you to receive ALL the pros and cons and be well informed before you make a coverage change because sometimes, depending on your health, changing can have long-term consequences to your options.

What’s the difference between a Supplement and Advantage Plan?

Medicare Supplements and Medicare Advantage plans are very different and this is maybe the most asked question we receive. So what is the difference between a Medicare Supplement (Medigap) and a Medicare Advantage plan?  It’s actually very easy to boil it down and we are going to keep it relatively high-level and simple here.

Medicare Supplements

A Medicare Supplement is a secondary policy that you purchase to cover the deductibles and copays that Original Medicare has. Your doctor bills Medicare first, then bills your Supplement. Depending on which plan you have, you may have no financial responsibility or limited responsibility.  There are several different plans, but the most popular are the F, G and N. The benefits of these plans are standardized by the government, which means that no matter what insurance company you buy the plan from, you get the same exact benefits.  Supplements do not have networks of doctors, so you are free to see any doctor in the U.S. that accepts Medicare and will have the same coverage.

Typically, but depending on your plan, you will have no charges at the hospital or doctor, or will only pay the Part B deductible then be covered 100%.

 

Medicare Advantage w/ Prescription Drug Plans (MAPD)

Medicare Advantage plans bundle your Part A (hospital & skilled nursing), Part B (outpatient services) and Part D (drug coverage) into one plan. These plans are commonly called “Medicare Replacement plans” because it is Medicare’s coverage outsourced to private insurance companies. You are still enrolled in the Medicare program, but Medicare no longer pays your claims or provides benefits; your insurance company does. They must cover all services that Medicare covers, but can set the rules for how you access your care, like having networks of doctors and copays for all visits and services.  Insurance companies can create different plans and make the copays whatever they want, although the copays are typically reasonable and customary. So there are many plans that all have different benefits.

With a Medicare Advantage plan, your monthly premium will be lower than a Supplement, but you will always have some level of cost associated with every visit and service you receive. Each plan has a maximum-out-of-pocket, so there is a cap to your annual financial responsibility.

Scam alert!

We have heard from several clients that they are receiving calls from people pretending to be Medicare saying that their Medicare.gov account has issues.  The scammer is requesting their Medicare Number and/or other personal information.   Medicare will NOT call you about your Medicare.gov account, but they do send you a letter after you have created your account to let you know that your account creation was successful.  If you receive a letter that says there is an issue with your account and has a number to call, do not call it; it is also a scam unless it has Medicare’s phone number on it (see below.)

Do not give out your Medicare Number or any other personal information to anyone who makes a call to you saying they are Medicare or any other agency. If you think there is an issue with your account, just go to Medicare.gov and try to log in. If you login works fine, then there are no issues. If the Username or Password are not correct, just use the “Trouble Logging In” link to reset your password.

You should only ever give your Medicare Number out if YOU made the call TO Medicare’s number 1-800-633-4227.

Update – Our AEP Progress During Week One

Week one of the Annual Enrollment Period is underway and we are so excited to say that Medicare has corrected the biggest issue in the Plan Finder Tool (what we use to compare drug costs) to now calculate Premium + Drug Costs.  This means that the most concerning setback to reviewing plans has been eliminated and all of the plan costs’ are being calculated properly.

The Plan Finder Tool still will not allow you to set the quantity of a drug to once per year. This is an issue for those of you that use expensive creams/etc that you rarely fill. This means that your total cost is being grossly inflated because the calculator must assume that you fill it every month. We are using our years of professional experience and knowledge to work around this issue.

 

How are we doing and how can you help?

We have hit the ground running since Tuesday and are completing reviews and returning calls as quickly as we can.  Although, what we are realizing is that it takes us much longer to do a review than in the past because of the numerous additional steps. Please be patient as we work as accurately and quickly as possible. We still want to be sensitive to your questions and give you the time that you may need while we discuss plans.  We cannot work on a first-come-first-serve basis or alphabetically and choose clients at random as we go along.  If you call for an update on your status in our process, we may not be able to return your call for these reasons.

While we are here to answer your questions, we also need to manage our time wisely so that we can help as many of you as possible during this time. If you have questions regarding your current plan, consider calling the Member Services number on your card or sending us an email.  Also, as a reminder, our administrators (Gina & Meagan) cannot answer benefit related questions.

If you would like to request a review, please check out our Resources page for the forms that you need to complete.   You need to create your personal www.Medicare.gov account and return our forms to us in order to join our review process.   Following our instructions ensures that everyone has a fair opportunity for a review and allows us more time to be efficient.
If you can edit your drug list in your Medicare.gov account, it helps us help you by completing one of the steps we have to take.   If you find it difficult to edit your drug list, it’s okay.

If you would like to review your own plan, please contact Gina (extension 5) or Meagan (ext 6) to request our Plan Finder Tool Guide.  We have almost completed our Guide and it should be ready next week. If you review your own plan and decide you would like to change plans, if you want us to be the agent (so that we can provide assistance/answer questions next year), just let us know which plan you want and we will send you the application paperwork and complete the enrollment like we always have.

 

Thank you so much for your business and friendship. We treasure chatting with you during this time and care for you and your wellbeing.
Again, we are working as quickly and accurately as possible while being mindful of our own health and limitations.

How to create your Medicare.gov account

The Medicare website’s Plan Finder Tool is what we use to compare prescription drug plans and the drug component of Medicare Advantage plans.  It is the easiest and most efficient way to compare your plan to other plans and determine if it would be beneficial to change.  In order to view drug costs specific to your medications, you need to have a personal www.Medicare.gov account.  Here, we will provide step-by-step instructions.

1. Go to www.Medicare.gov.    Only go to “.gov”, NOT “.com”
2. Click “MyMedicare.gov Login” in the top-right.
3. Scroll down and select “Create Account”
4. You will enter the following as it appears on your Medicare card:
4a. Medicare Number.  Do not include the dashes or spaces. Enter it as one unbroken sequence.
4b. Name exactly as it appears on your card.  If you go by another name or suffix, such as Jr, but it is not on your card, do not enter it that way. It must match your card.
4c. Email address, if you have one. You do not have to have an email or include it. Just select the “I don’t have an email address” box.
4d. Birthdate.
4e. Resident zip code.  This is the zip code for the address that Social Security has for you.
4f. Part A effective date.   If you do not have Part A, select “I don’t have Part A” and it will prompt you to enter your Part B effective date.
4g. Click both boxes to agree to the Terms & Conditions.
5. A security warning will appear. It states that you cannot use the Medicare site for fraud. Select “OK”
6. The next page asks you to create a User ID.  This can be whatever you want it to be. You can use your email address.
7. Then create a password.  The guidelines for password creation are on the right side of the screen.
8. Finally, you will choose a security question and answer. This is used to reset your account if you forget your User ID or password.

Make sure to write your User ID and password down and secure it safely!!

9. Select Done.  It will redirect you to the log-in screen and tell you that your account was successfully created.   Log in with your credentials to make sure it works.

AEP is peeking around the corner!

The Annual Enrollment Period is the timeframe during the year that your Part D drug plan or Part C advantage plan’s benefits may change and the only time that you can change your plan. This period goes from October 15th to December 7th. No changes may be made to Part D drug plans after December 7th.

Your current insurance company is required to send you (via mail) the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) by September 30th. The ANOC informs you of any changes to the premium, deductible, copay tiers, and what the preferred pharmacies will be for the following year.  It is important that you review this information. If you are still satisfied with what the benefits will be, then there is nothing you need to do in order for your policy to keep going. You do not need to re-enroll or sign anything; it will automatically renew and your payment method will stay the same.

Changes for us at Imagine

Medicare has revamped the Plan Finder Tool, which is the program within the Medicare site that is used to view and compare plans and costs specific to your prescriptions. The look and feel is totally new, but it still does the same functions as before.   The big change for us is that we can no longer save and recall an anonymous list of your prescriptions, which is how we were able to quickly and efficiently review your options during this time. This means that in order for us to review costs specific to you, we need to access your personal Medicare.gov account to work with your saved list of prescriptions. All current clients of ours recently received our annual AEP letter which provides a little more detail on this process change and how to work with us.

Since these changes were only recently announced, we were provided limited time to create a solution that will enable us to fairly continue supporting changes to your needs. As the weeks roll on and we experience this new process we have put in place, we will see how viable and smoothly is it going. If we are not able to work around the changes that the industry has put in place, or if you would like to know how to review your own plan options using the Plan Finder Tool, we have written a fairly conprehensive guide to understanding the Tool. After all the years of hard work and support we have provided, we must respectfully inform you that we cannot guarantee a review of your plan but will certainly continue to do our best like we always have.

Welcome to the Imagine family!

Here at Imagine, we strive to treat everyone like family. While we are here to get you set up with insurance that is suitable for your unique situation, we also hope that you are happy and as healthy as can be. We have had the opportunity to meet many wonderful people like yourself over the years and are thankful for your business and friendship. Since you are in our Imagine family, we would never recommend a company or product for you that we wouldn’t want for our own close family and loved ones.

Imagine Insurance Advisors was originally AM Warner Insurance, founded and run single-handedly by Allison Harris (then Warner) in 2002.  Allison was previously in the computer industry and when the winds of change blew, she built a windwill and made the decision to put her hard work into the insurance industry. She began selling Long-Term Care Insurance because it was such a specialized product and complicated to understand, but is such an important piece to maintaining your independence. LTC insurance is important to those that choose to purchase it, she wanted to be sure that clients that came to her for a policy would fully understand the value and cost so that they could select the best option for their long-term needs.

When Part D drug plans and Part C Advantage plans came out in 2006, she found that she was able to help more people make more important choices by becoming a Medicare options specialist as well. While not everyone will need LTC Insurance, most everyone will need Medicare and she was excited to expand her expertise and give more people a peace of mind.

During these years of the entrance of Part D and Part C, Allison’s daughter, Madeline, was in high school and began doing more extensive back-office work and was involved in the application process for plan enrollments. Madeline was so elated to do more than mailings and busy work that midway through college, she decided to forego a Psychology degree and instead changed to Business Management in conjunction with the state insurance license.  In 2011, Madeline Warner obtained her insurance license and followed in her mother’s footsteps of being a trusted resource to turn to when your Medicare options aren’t so clear. She was able to hit the ground running because she had spent countless hours listening to Allison transact and support clients over the phone which translated to lots of third-hand experience.

In 2014, Madeline worked heavily in the under 65 health insurance market to help numerous individuals and families understand all the changes that the Affordable Care Act made to obtaining health insurance. During that time, Medicare options remained her primary focus and in 2018 she left the under 65 individual market to focus solely on Medicare options. There is a plethora of information regarding Medicare coverage options and it can be difficult for you to decide which one is right for you, especially when your eligibility is sometimes limited by the myriad of enrollment rules. Madeline’s knowledge base and teaching style enables her to take that giant net of generic information and turn it into an easy-to-understand package that is tailored to you and your unique situation.

Imagine Insurance Advisors is family owned and operated and has been that way since the beginning. Allison and Madeline are the sole agents and work as a team. We don’t involve any third-parties in the conduct of our business and are humbled by the gratitude and respect that our local Louisville community has bestowed on us through the referrals of your loved friends and family. Every piece of mail or every internet post you see from us was thoughtfully folded and written by one of personally.

Welcome to the Imagine family, we able happy to have been there for you to help make the best decisions in regards to your coverage choices.

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