Right now, we are in the middle of Medicare open enrollment season. It started on October 15th and it ends on December 7th. Emily spoke with Laryssa Domagala, manager of Medicare for Independent Health. Laryssa says this is everyone’s annual chance to kind of review your health plan, your needs and plan for 2022.
Laryssa says she meets with a lot of individuals and she always tells people, whatever choice you make is a good choice as long as you understand it. She says for example if you are on an Independent Health plan it will automatically re-enroll for next year but if you have had any changes in your health or any new prescriptions or if you have an upcoming surgery you want kind of want to know what’s covered and how it is covered. She says next year Independent Health has a lot of enhancements to our plan including a new over-the-counter benefit so we would love to have people come in to make sure they are maximizing their benefits for the coming year. Laryssa says she found the best and easiest way to kind of get your questions answered is to sit down and have a conversation, meet with someone one-on-one. She says the best way to find the closest Medicare Information Center to you is to visit our website IndependentHealth.com/Medicare
Independent Health’s Medicare Information Centers are open Monday – Friday from 9am to 4pm and walk-ins are welcome. They are also available over the phone and online. If you do come in, they are requiring masks because they want to keep people as safe as possible.
Laryssa says as added bonus, some fun stuff they are doing at their Medicare Information Centers is that if individuals come in, they have a chance to enter our sweepstakes. She says they will be pulling the names of nine individuals to win a $500 gift card to either TOPS or Wegmans so that helps too. Laryssa says being a local health plan we want to support our local community. She says the not-for-profits in the area have obviously struggled and we are asking our members to come in and nominate their favorite local charity. Independent Health will be giving 65 local charities $650 each. She says if you have a charity you are really supportive of, that maybe you volunteer for or donate to regularly come in and let us know who that is. She goes on to say we will be pulling 65 different charities and it’s just way for us to give back; it’s been a tough year and we really want to help people the best that we can.
If you would like to call them the phone numbers are 716-635-4900 or 1-800-958-4405 and for TTY call 711
For more information go to IndependentHealth.com/Medicare
