 Good afternoon everybody and thank you for joining us on another weekly edition of condo insider that is put on by Hawaii Council of Community Associations, also known as a CCA. So this week, my guest is Wanda and they only she with the state of Hawaii, the state health insurance assistant program, also known as ship. For some of you probably familiar with the commercials that are on TV. They do put a lot of commercials on TV regarding ship, which is insurance assistance program. So, with condos, you know, we're always trying to, you know, we have the big mate the maintenance fees that needs to be paid. So one of the thoughts of this is as seniors age, and you're now on fixed incomes. You know, it's kind of hard sometimes as board members that will, you know, we have people here on fixed income we can't raise maintenance fees. So really this whole series is about other ways that individuals seniors can help by by checking their, all their services that they get under Medicare or one of the other other options that they have that for services that they can probably get for free. Within the insurance that they already pay for. So, last time we did it on on the SMP, and that had some money saving tips, especially for fraud and scams and things of that nature. So, one is going to explain to us today about ship, the state health insurance assistance program. So, Wanda, thank you for being with me on the show. So, I hope we can uncover some opportunities for seniors to take advantage of some services that they are qualified under their programs insurance programs that they don't have to pay out of pocket, or other alternatives where they don't have to pay out of pocket so they can still keep money in their own pocket rather than it going out. So, explain to us what ship is. So, the state health insurance assistance program Hawaii ship we are a volunteer based program that helps people understand Medicare. I mean, basically that's what we do we are part of the Department of Health Executive Office on aging, we're federally funded, and we provide free services such as counseling assistance. We offer presentations and you'll often see us at health fairs where we can talk to you one on one about your Medicare questions and we are free or unbiased. We're not affiliated with any of insurance health insurance plan. So we're not going to steer you toward purchasing a certain plan and we also don't sell insurance. We're just here to give you some information. Because Medicare in general is just confusing. Yeah, it is yeah. So let's pull up the first slide on the PowerPoint because I think everybody would recognize the logo, because you know we see that on the TV commercials right. So, here we have the ship logo, and it's tied to Medicare the Medicare insurance. So let's kind of like talk about the, the items that you guys participate in and what exactly the insurance assistance program is all about and how is it funded, because it's in every single state right. Yes it is and in four territories, District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico. So the whole purpose is to really educate and empower our seniors and then ship will also have we call if I called in and say hey I you know I need to understand how to do this or, or. Okay, so when I get to the point where I have to start getting into Medicare signing up for the, for that when you reach that age. So I could actually call your office. You could what we have as a helpline. It's not a call center so you'll hear a recorded message. We'll ask you to leave your name, your contact information, your zip code. The best times to call you back and the reason why you're calling and we're going to assign a counselor to who has the most knowledge about your specific concern to just talk you through whatever questions you have. I'm going to walk away with a better understanding of how your coverage, your Medicare coverage is working for you, how to best utilize your benefits. Okay great let's pull up slide number two, number three because it has some great statistics on here. So, you know look at that Medicare population. It's almost 300,000 in in Hawaii. You know they ship does a lot of out besides the commercials they do a lot of outreach. They've counseled or helped at least almost 3000 Medicare recipients. And I've seen them in fairs little pop up tents at different events. But it's quite, it's quite a unique outreach service that really caters only to seniors. So we really want to explore and educate the seniors on the opportunities to take advantage of this service because it is for free. Right. Yes. Okay. So someone calls in. So your services will include counseling and like on what kind of what what what does a senior need to have in front of them in order to have a conversation with you. Well, our typical calls are I'm aging into Medicare. I'm turning 65 in a couple of months. What do I do. Or I during our open enrollment period, which happens every fall. People want to shop around for new plans. Maybe they're on a part. They have a part C with one provider health insurance provider and. There may be better deals for them better cost savings for them. We offer a plan comparison service where we would send a plan comparison form to the client who would fill it out with their prescriptions the pharmacies they go to. What kind of plans they're interested in, whether it be a part C, which is a Medicare Advantage or part D, which is a standalone prescription drug plan. That's also Medicare. Or a Medicare plan, which is Medicare supplement insurance. And our specialists will run the comparisons for them. There are tools available from Medicare.gov to do this. On their own for people who are very tech savvy and feel that they feel very comfortable with just navigating the internet on their own Medicare.gov offers a great plan finder tool. But we are specialists will take whatever results. Are posted after a person fills in all the questions. And all the fields and hits submit. You usually get 20 plans. But what our specialists will do is they'll narrow those 20 plans down to 3 based on the information that was provided on the form. And they'll do the shopping comparisons. If a person wants dental vision hearing, which original Medicare doesn't offer, but a Medicare Advantage plan does. They can look into those benefit extra benefits, compare costs and services that are available through that particular Medicare Advantage plan. So for some of you that aren't aware at what age do you have to register for Medicare. So that's 65. There's an initial enrollment period, 3 months before the 65th birthday, the birth month and 3 months after. And within that period, if they sign up for Medicare, they'll get coverage either by the birth month or if they sign up in the 3 months after. It's the month following when they sign up and they'll avoid that late enrollment penalty, which is tacked on if somebody decides to. Feel they need Medicare when they're 68. And they didn't sign up in time. So those are the kinds of things that people need to look out for because nobody wants to pay more than they have to. And the initial enrollment period is for people who want Medicare or have to be on Medicare because their employer requires it and they're going to retire. And in order to keep those retiree benefits, they need to have Medicare and be like people who work for the state or counties. And then they sign up, they avoid that late enrollment period penalty, and they will just have to pay what the premium is. It's the monthly premium for Part B. Yeah. Okay, so you have to register. Enroll into Medicare 3 months prior to your 65th birthday month. Yeah, but you can still enroll in your birth month. You'll get coverage the following month. And then you have that 3 months after. So, let's say my birth month is May, but I decide to enroll in June. My coverage will start in July. And what, and the penalties, there's like a hefty penalty or what is that? Well, it adds up. So, most people are eligible for premium free Part A, which is the inpatient. And that's because they work 40 quarters and paid into the Social Security taxes and that's equivalent to 10 years. Part B, which is your outpatient services, your doctor visits, your lab tests. A lot of your vaccinations will fall under Part B. That has a monthly premium this year is $164.90. So, if you waited, let's say 2 years after you turn 67 decide, okay, now I really want to get Medicare because my health costs are rising. Then they would pay a 10% on whatever the premium base premium is that year. And for 12 month period. So, let's say they sign, they're 67 now. They're signing up this year. The, the premium is $165 just rounding it off. So it's 1650 times 2 plus the 164. 90 that there would pay monthly and the more that they delay. That's another year that's added on of 10% with whatever the premium is at that time. So, even for prescription part prescription drug plan, the Part D. If someone decides to stay on original Medicare, just take A and B. And then they're not taking any drugs when they turn 65, but at age 70, they have to take prescription drugs. Then there's a penalty for Part D. So we encourage people who are want to stay on original Medicare because their lifestyle, it's more beneficial to them. Let's say they're snowbirds, they spend part of the year in Hawaii part of the year in another state. They're able to see providers in either state. That original Medicare would probably be the best for them. We encourage them, even if they're not taking prescription drugs at the time to just sign up for a prescription drug plan because there are very low premiums in comparison to the Part B premium. Wow. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot, but fortunately in Hawaii ship will walk you through it. We have trained counselors that either they come from the health care background or insurance background fully retired. They live in all of our counties. They're very familiar with the options there because a lot of them are on Medicare. So, if a person were to request the counseling appointment, then the counselor would give them a call and they'll just have a conversation. And often, while they're just talking, other issues will arise like, oh, wait a minute. I need to ask you a question about this regarding Medicare and the counselor if they don't know the answer, they do the research and then they call back. Oh, that's great. And let's talk about your website. Because you have resources for different languages also. Yes. So, you can see on the slide, we have from Chinese to Ilkano, Samoan, Vietnamese, and a lot of the resources there are put out by either Social Security or the center of Medicare and Medicaid services. And we also have our own brochures and flyers that we have our volunteers translate into different languages to help our multilingual community understand what's available to them. So, some of the volunteers might be proficient in a different language so they'll be an awesome resource to communicate with all clients. We have a few but we're always trying to encourage other people who speak different languages that are common in Hawaii to join our team and help your loved ones who speak the same language that you do that may not be English and understand Medicare so they can help them. So, how is it like I called in because like my mom is having an issue, and I called in so would there just be like a consent agreement that I could represent her in the conversation. Definitely. A lot of our clients are children of older adults who maybe in their stage of life aren't able to voice their concerns. Some have dementia, you know, it's the caregiver often is a family member who needs that extra help. And we provide what we can through the Medicare counseling. Okay, so we you. So like for me, I would I would gather all my, my, my parents, medical information or their card and coverages and all of that. And then we would sit down, have a conversation with ship, say, look, this is the meds that they take. This is our current coverage, which probably would be on their, their card. They would have either. Well, the Medicare card will just say if they're on part A and part B. But then if they have a Medicare Advantage plan through a private health insurance company like Kaiser H and the say United healthcare. They those plans will send a card. So your, your mom would have the red, white and blue Medicare card. From Social Security, she'll have the Medicare Advantage card, or if she was on. Just the original Medicare and had a prescription drug plan, then she'll probably have that card too. So there's a whole bunch of cards that people need to keep track of. And keep safe because they're like you learn from SMP. There are people who want to steal your Medicare. So you have to take a number and charge a lot toward toward our Medicare trust fund, which is how we keep this benefit going. Yeah. Yeah, it was interesting to learn how all they needed your date of birth and last four digits and they can go crazy. That was, that was an eye opener. Give me like, give me an example or give us an example of like a case that you can remember how it had had some eye opening experiences with a client. A recent case was there was a there is a health plan that offers extra benefits. This is a Medicare Advantage. So let me backtrack. So Medicare Advantage has to offer everything part A inpatient and part B outpatient offers. But the health plan can offer additional benefits. It's not required, but they can. And it makes it a more attractive plan for people. You can think of original Medicare is all a cart where there's the A and the B, maybe you'll get a medicap gap. You should get a prescription drug plan part D. But with a Medicare Advantage plan, it's like that entire meal all at once. You know what you're going to get for your soup, your entree and your dessert. So you'll have your part A part B. A lot of the plans offer vision, hearing dental, as well as extra benefits. Like, for instance, one was paying utility bills. A recent client had trouble with getting the bills paid and what how we resolved it was to work with the plan because we do have partners at the health plans. And they were able to address it correct this person's situation, which had been going on for months and they tried to resolve it themselves. But decided, okay, why don't we give this Hawaii ship a chance? We always see them on TV. And we were able to just by working with the plan to address this person's problems. And now the person the client has had all of the utility bills reimbursed for what he had to pay out of pocket and they've made it a better benefit for this individual. So that's like the extreme. A lot of times it's either people just losing their Medicaid because the COVID unwinding. And they're getting a letter from MedQuest saying that they're not eligible anymore. So if someone gives us a call, we can talk to them about the marketplace health insurance plans that they could be eligible for. Talking to them about enrolling into Medicare. You know, just so that there's no gap in coverage. So, so essentially once you're, once you're a senior, there's really should be. There should be, there's always an opportunity for some kind of health coverage. Yes. So Medicare is one. And then if they qualify for because their income is low and their assets are low, they could qualify for Medicaid. And then if their income and assets are just slightly above that Medicaid threshold, there's also the Medicare savings program, which will help to pay the. Co-payments, coinsurance and premiums for parts A and B, or there's the extra help plan from Social Security that will help pay prescription drug costs for people who qualify because their income and assets are low. So that's another way to save money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So essentially there should be. Essentially, there should be no senior that has zero coverage. I mean, there's always a coverage available. Yeah. For any senior versus, you know, your young adults, sometimes they're like in a little limbo status about having some kind of coverage when they are no longer covered under their parents and now they got to figure out what they're going to do with their coverage. So this is really good information. I'm learning a lot. And I think a lot of seniors should take the opportunity to reevaluate their Medicare needs and give ship that call to see if there's other services that you're missing out on that you're eligible for at no cost to the senior. I think that's one thing that's going to be very good and also give them the opportunity to do the legwork, the shopping to make sure you're getting the maximum benefit allowed for yourself and also the cost, just the cost alone and it's a free service. You know, they lost the senior anything to have their server to have their plans reevaluated. But that would be so awesome for any senior to take advantage of this free service. So the two peer enrollment periods. I want to highlight before we go is that initial enrollment period for people trading 65. That seven months window where they can enroll into Medicare through Social Security. And then there's always that annual open enrollment. It starts October 15 and runs through December 7. And that's the time when you can shop around for new plans. Usually that is when a lot of people get the mailers from different health insurance plans because they're trying to show you what new features the plan offers. And maybe this is a better plan for them. You know, give us a call say, I'd like you to do a plan comparison if you're already on Medicare, and we can pretty much run the numbers for you just with the information that you provide. Oh, so let's pull up the last slide that shows a lot of the contact information. Also the website. So you have Hawaii ship.org, which is a really easy website to remember, and your wahu number you have your toll free numbers. But there's always help available. And because of the way it's a strictly volunteer. So you may not get a live person answer the phone you just leave a voicemail, and you'll get a return phone call. But one of the key things to remember is make sure you got to kind of get some of the paperwork in order so that when they ask questions you're able to respond. And hopefully get everything covered. But you know, the ship organization of volunteers need to get information from the senior, or from their caregiver, so that they can fully maximize the services that ship does. Awesome. How long has ship been in Hawaii. A little over 30 years of the executive office on aging where we're located got the first ship grant in 1992. They built the program. It was called sage plus at the time. And then right around the two 2010s we rebranded and now we're called Hawaii ship. And we're just trying to build our. Make a way ship a household world because you could see from the numbers that we shared you have close to 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 2022, but we only service 3000. So, there's so many more people not aware that of what we do that need the help and. Through our marketing efforts and through think tech, which so grateful that you're giving us this opportunity to share what we do that more people will learn about Hawaii ship and what they we can do for them. And if I remember right the aging population is is projected to grow within the next, I think 10 years. It grew just from the time we took those stats at the end of the year till now we're over 300,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Hawaii alone. Wow. Wow. I think it was like a part of me. I think it was like a, it's projected to be like a third of the population. Very soon. Yeah, if I remember right. Yeah, it was all of us baby boomers, you know, aging into Medicare is only going to grow and grow. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you Wanda we're kind of nearing the end of our time. So I really want to thank you for this opportunity to be on our show and really explain what ship is all about and you know I see the commercials on TV. But for everybody. Listening and watching the show. The service is a valuable service is for free. We got to maximize what we can for free. And just don't let them do the hard work, let them do the investigation, because it can be complex and can be confusing. So at least we have people that are that they themselves are volunteers but that's what they do. So they know the ins and outs, you know, and I think I think that ship is going to be awesome is just for I mean I'm reaching that age so I'm like, okay, I got to get on this bandwagon here. I don't know how to call. Yeah, so I'll be bumping into you guys pretty soon. So again thank you Wanda for this opportunity, and look forward to more happenings with ship. Great. I'm so grateful for you giving us this opportunity as well. Thank you. Have a good rest of your week. Thank you too. Thank you Wanda. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.