Hello! I hope you are enjoying your summer. We are looking forward to our family vacation at the beach this month. 

If you have an Anthem Medicare Advantage plan and use Aultman Health System, please call us as soon as possible.

This letter contains a very short, condensed review of some estate planning documents. The idea is to familiarize you with these documents and to help you understand the differences between them. I am not an attorney so this is not legal advice but it’s just to give you a general idea of what things are or what you may need in your particular situation. But first we’re going to start with some Medicare news.

If you leave a message using my old 330-654-5894 phone number, I may not get it.  Please use my cell phone number 330-774-1341.

Medicare changes coming. Because the insurance companies are getting a low increase in their funding again for 2027 (this is in addition to other cuts they had in funding), it looks like the advantage plans and prescription drug plans are going to be cutting back. Look for higher copays and possibly significant cuts in extra benefits like dental, vision, and hearing. I’ll be surprised if many companies keep the OTC (over the counter) benefit.  So, if you have any dental, vision, or hearing needs, make sure you get those done before the end of the year.  It’s too early for specifics but I just want you to be prepared for what’s coming. Those who are new to Medicare in the last 10 years don’t remember when there were no extra benefits. Back then, if a plan had dental cleaning only, that was the only extra benefit there was. The last 10 years the pendulum has been swinging towards more benefits and now it looks like the pendulum’s going back the other way for the next few years. With Medicare scheduled to go broke in less than nine years, it’s not surprising that the government is going to cut back now to try to save money in the future.

General Durable Power of Attorney appoints someone to manage your financial and legal matters, NOT healthcare decisions. It avoids going to court to request guardianship to manage your finances when somebody becomes incapacitated due to illness or cognitive decline or when a person wants assistance managing bills and money.

Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare appoints a person to make medical decisions if the person is unable to communicate their wishes.

A Will tells the court how you want your property distributed.  It guarantees that assets will go through probate which means wasting time, money and its public.

A Living Will is a written declaration of a person’s wishes to NOT receive life sustaining treatment if they are terminally ill or permanently unconscious and becomes effective only when two doctors determine the patient is terminally ill or unconscious. It should be used in conjunction with the DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) that you request from your doctor. This order removes the burden from your family to make that decision and directs medical personnel not to perform CPR if needed. Sometimes doctors do not abide by living wills unless there’s a DNR with it. So, if you do not want to be put on artificial life support, talk to your doctor about a DNR order and do a living will.

A living trust is a revocable trust. You place your assets into this trust during your lifetime.  When you pass, a successor trustee takes over and distributes the assets. For Ohio, it is commonly used for people who have real estate in multiple states because it can then avoid probate in multiple states. It’s not a necessary document in Ohio for most people because Ohio now has TOD (Transfer on Death) and POD (Payable on Death).

TOD‘s transfer property upon death to a named beneficiary for things with a title like vehicles, or real estate and investment accounts.  POD is basically the same thing. It transfers ownership automatically to a beneficiary upon death and is primarily used for bank accounts.  Both of these avoid probate and are simple and straightforward.  I had these things set up for my mother when she passed away last year. She had property and accounts, none of which had to go through probate.

Every person’s situation is different. For this reason, it’s a good idea to see an attorney. Putting these protections in place is not about expecting the worst – it’s about ensuring your wishes are honored and making sure your family is protected during this stressful time in their lives.  Don’t put this off any longer. Store these documents in a safe but accessible place and share copies with your executor and trusted family members.

Our family is doing great.  The grandkids are loads of fun.  The exciting news is that both our son’s wives are expecting this fall!  That’s two more grandkids!!

Thank you for the referrals and please keep them coming.  Have a great summer!

Chris & Cathy Boring

Hello,                                                                                                                                                      

Well, we made it through one of the coldest winters we’ve had in a long time. If you’re like us, you’re really looking forward to spring.

Cathy and I would like to thank you for the trust you’ve placed in us for your health insurance needs. We don’t take your trust for granted and we work hard to make sure you have good coverage with a good company. We also greatly appreciate the referrals. We are covering several things in this letter which I hope you will find helpful or interesting.

The bean counters in Washington DC are talking about making cuts in funding Medicare Advantage plans for next year. If that happens, you will be looking at a reduction of benefits again for 2027. I will keep you informed but you may want to call your congressman and senator and tell them to fully fund Medicare Advantage plans for 2027 and that you don’t like the cutbacks that came this year. Remind them that you’ll find out about your plan cutbacks for 2027 before it’s time to vote this fall.

For anyone looking for a safe place to put some money with no stock market risk and a guaranteed interest rate between 4.5% and 5.5% for periods of 2 – 10 years, we have some solid annuities to look at. If you have any questions or interest, call Chris.

For those with a Medicare Advantage plan, just a reminder that you have extra benefits (usually in-network) in addition to medical and prescription drug coverage. These include a free exam for dental, vision, hearing, and most plans have some over-the-counter. Most plans cover basic dental cleaning and exam, fluoride treatment, and X-rays twice a year and the majority of plans have at least $1,000 a year in comprehensive dental coverage as well. Most also include $150 to $300 per year for glasses and some hearing aid coverage which can have various copayments depending on what you need.

Regarding dental, we now have a plan with decent rates, and you can get up to $2,500 in coverage. The longer you have it, the more coverage you get towards comprehensive coverage up to a certain percent. If you’re interested, please give Cathy a call.

We also wanted to let you know about a change in the hospital indemnity plan we use. The company we use pays you $500 per day for each day you’re in the hospital, $400 for an ambulance trip, $750 for outpatient procedures, $150 for ER, and $50 a day for physical therapy.  This plan will cover the majority of your most common major out-of-pocket costs for a monthly premium ranging between $55 and $70 a month. The new thing they’ve added this year is to make it guaranteed issue up to age 75. If you have any major health issues, it has a six-month pre-existing condition and after that any related claims will be fully covered. So, if you have any interest in this or any questions, call Chris.

Watch out for the bait and switch phone calls where they promise to give you “additional benefits to your Medicare” like a $200 a month grocery card. You give them your information and then they tell you “Sorry, you don’t qualify” but it’s too late. They have your information and sign you up for something else and you lose the current plan you have. Please call us if you have any doubts or questions. Another new one is calling and telling you that your Medicare card has been flagged or suspended – not true – call Medicare at 800-772-1213 to confirm.

Some of the latest SCAMS: Grandchild to Grandparent calls for an emergency are getting worse.  AI now has the ability to mimic the child’s real voice. Be very careful of these. Technical Support scams for your phone or especially your computer or Internet are growing too. Scammers pop up warnings claiming your device is compromised and then you must pay for the urgent support. Once they have access, they can steal your information.  Scammers also pretend to be from government departments like Social Security, Medicare, IRS, law enforcement / turnpike, or businesses like bank fraud departments or Amazon or Walmart etc.  They threaten to freeze your accounts or arrest you. Government agencies almost never ever call you unless you initiated it first.

Red flags to look for include: it sounds urgent, threatens consequences, pressures you to act right now or its “too good to be true”.  Never trust the caller ID because fake numbers can look official. Refuse unusual payment methods like gift cards to Walmart, crypto or prepaid cash cards. Another red flag is emotional manipulation like “help me, I’m family”.  Always independently verify – like if someone claims to be a relative in trouble, call another family member using a known number or if a company or government agency contacts you, contact them using their official number on statement or card not the one the caller gives you. Always protect yourself by never giving out Social Security numbers, Medicare numbers, bank details, passwords or pins unless you initiated the call and confirmed who you’re talking to. Also establish a family “safe word” or “code phrase” known only to trusted relatives since they know to use the phrase or word and you know it’s really them. Also avoid clicking links or attachments in unsolicited texts and emails – these can be phishing attempts to get your data. And when in doubt get a trusted family member or friend to look at any suspicious activity. Sometimes these emails look so real that we get a second opinion on them.

Our family is doing great. The grandkids now ages 1, 2, 4 and 6 are so much fun. So, between work, grandkids and church, we’re busy but it’s all really good.

Take care,

Chris and Cathy

Hello,  

The annual October newsletter with changes to your plan for 2026 has been mailed.  You should receive it by October 15, 2025.  It is company specific, so the letter sent to you is applicable to the company’s plan you have.  If you have not received the letter, please contact Cathy at 330-298-5969.  She will send you the appropriate letter.  The information below is generic to all the letters that were sent out.                                                                                                                                 

     I hope you enjoyed your summer. It was pretty hot, so I am enjoying the cooler temperatures.   I want to remind you that Cathy and I are licensed with all the major Medicare companies in Ohio. There aren’t any plan benefits out there that we are not aware of. So, if you hear of a benefit that interests you, please call us first.  Also, no one from the insurance company will ever call you to “change or upgrade your plan”, they are lying.  Remember, if you buy from somebody on the phone who calls you up, you’ll get no customer service from them and you will lose Cathy and I as your agents. I hope the information in our newsletters and the fact that we are responsive on getting back to your phone calls makes us valuable to you. 

     On a personal note, Cathy and I are doing great. We have four beautiful grandkids, and they and their parents are doing well. We stay busy between work, the farm, the grandkids, and church and we are just plain blessed. The grandsons started homeschooling this year and they seem to like it and are doing well.  They both learned how to ride bikes without training wheels this summer.  The three-year-old is really proud of that.

     Call us if you have questions and remember if you know anybody else on Medicare, please pass our name along. Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Sincerely,

Chris & Cathy

Matthew 6:27, 34 – “Who of you by worry can add a single hour to his life?  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Please let us help you take at least one worry out of your life.

Hello,                                                                                                                                              

We hope things have been going well for you and that you have been able to get out and enjoy the warm weather (in between the rain drops). It was long overdue. We want to thank all of you who have sent referrals our way. It helps our business and it means a lot that you trust us enough to refer people. Well, there’s a lot to cover so let’s get right to it.

Medicare changes. The only thing we know for certain right now is that the maximum out- of-pocket for prescriptions is going to go from $2,000 to $2,100 next year.  We believe there could be some big changes to your plan next year, especially regarding prescription drug coverage and they are not going to be good changes for the most part. We don’t know any specifics yet.

Your plan could be losing some extra benefits next year like the small grocery card if you have it and the OTC (or at least a reduction in benefits).  It wouldn’t surprise us if the dental benefit was also reduced.  You can likely expect increases in copays for prescriptions too.  We are hoping most of the medical copayments will remain about the same. Not to be redundant but we don’t know any of this for certain yet and won’t know all the details until October 1^st. We just want you to be prepared for this so that you’re not shocked when you get our October newsletter. We suspect/hope that most of the companies will be very similar to each other for next year and that even with your plan’s possible reduction in benefits it won’t be worthwhile moving to another company or plan. As usual, we will let you know all the details and options in our October newsletter/annual review. Hopefully, it will be good news.

On that note, we have enclosed another sheet for you to fill out with a list of your prescriptions and doctors. We don’t expect networks to change much (if any) next year but prescriptions could change. Please fill this out and send it back to us as soon as you can so we can get it entered into our database. We don’t anticipate this being an annual thing but with all the changes last year and this year to Medicare we’re just trying to be prepared.

Prescription drugs   Just a reminder that you don’t have to use your insurance cards for prescriptions if you could get them another way. The money you pay won’t go towards your max out-of-pocket but sometimes the savings are worth it. Ways to save on your prescriptions include discount prescription cards like GoodRx.com or WellRx.com.  To find assistant programs offered by drug companies check out https://rxassist.org.  There are also nonprofit disease specific foundations at www.copays.org and www.panfoundation.org.

Not a Scam BUT   There is a new Medicare Advantage plan out there offering $100 per month in healthy groceries and over the counter benefits. It is for people who are diagnosed as diabetic or have a heart condition. It also has some low copayments and good dental/vision, but it has a $340 deductible for Tier 3 medications and then a $47 copay. You need to be diligent in checking prescriptions before changing or you could possibly end up paying more in prescription drug copays with this plan than you would actually save with the $100 grocery benefit. So don’t get tricked into switching plans over the phone. If you have questions and want to check out possibly signing up for the plan, please call me or Cathy.

SCAMS  There’s so many scams out there, it’s frightening. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry now. We need to be more cautious than ever, especially with AI becoming more common. The top three most common red flags to watch out for that the bad guys use are:1) They use urgency or fear like when you get a call or an e-mail saying your credit or bank account is at risk and you must do something immediately to avoid loss or penalties. 2) Too good to be true with promises of free money, prizes, deals or even romance. They’re becoming more elaborate to where some victims actually received gains for weeks or months before the scammers empty their accounts. 3) Impersonation is getting worse as well. Fraudsters pretending to be family members in distress or claiming they’re from the IRS or some other federal office, local police, your utility company, or any other organization or business.

They also use text and emails to impersonate real people, so remember not to download anything onto your computer that you don’t know exactly what it is. Be careful about even clicking on things that you receive in e-mail because it can download malicious software on your phone or computer. So be careful.  You may consider going to www.aarp.org/fraud. There you can sign up for a biweekly e-mail or text alert to find out what the latest scams are.

Cathy and I and our family are very blessed. All four grandkids are healthy as well as their parents and they are so much fun. Chris has been extra busy settling his mother’s estate. We hope you have a great summer. If you get a chance stop by the merchants’ building at the Randolph Fair in August and say hello. Thanks again for the referrals!

Take care,

Chris & Cathy Boring

Hello,

I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year’s. Cathy and I did. This letter is just to give you a couple of updates and some of the latest scams to watch out for. But first we need your help with something. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the news media do not distinguish between brokers like us and the call centers that drive you crazy. Cathy and I try hard to provide you with valuable information to make informed decisions about your healthcare options.  If you value the ability to work with us, we would like you to tell CMS and your legislators why we are important to you. Please go online to fill out the 5 question survey at https://votervoice.net/NABIP/Surveys/11551/Respond. If you would like us to email you the form, please send us your email and we will email the form to you. This needs to be completed by February 7^th as it will be shared with your legislators at a conference in late February. We may also put some of it on our website.

Good news for those who have Anthem Blue Cross and use Summa hospital or doctors, they settled on 12/31/2024.   So those using Summa can continue as normal. Ohio State facilities (which includes part of Rootstown NEOMED) unfortunately dropped Anthem for next year. Anyone using those doctors will need to either switch doctors or call me for a plan Ohio State will accept.

Prescriptions.  Please remember January could be an expensive month for prescriptions for those on an expensive drug like Eliquis or Ozempic. The good news is the maximum out-of-pocket (MOOP) this year for prescriptions is $2,000 and with the way they calculate it, most people won’t actually spend that much. You can use other discount prescription cards which may help you save money on certain drugs compared to your actual insurance. If you use those cards, the prescription costs do not go towards your $2,000 MOOP.

Just as a reminder if you end up on a new drug that’s not currently covered by your plan, you can ask for a formulary exception which means the insurance company will cover your drug even though it’s not on their list. You can also ask for a utilization exception which can waive coverage restrictions or limits on your drug. Your doctor will have to help you get an exception but generally the decision is made within 3-5 business days.

Extra Help  Those whose income and assets are low enough can qualify for extra help for prescription drug costs. There are different levels to it and if you qualify some levels will pay your Part B premium. For single people making under $1,900 a month and couples making under $2,600 per month with assets under $17,000 for an individual and under $35,000 for a couple you should apply.  Go to Medicare.gov and search extra help or type in https://secure.ssa.gov/i1020/Ee001view.action.

Scams  There are many new and updated scams to watch out for. The most common scams are Investment scams and business impostor scams where they pretend to be from Amazon or Microsoft or any other type of business or social media. You need to look at all digital communication (emails, texting etc.) with skepticism if you did not initiate contact with the people requesting information from you. When in doubt, call the company directly to verify that the e-mail or text was legitimate. Do not use the phone number they give you, look it up on your own. These scams include credit card decline problems (buying online), utility companies, and those companies who send you an e-mail offering you a free scan because your computer is infected. A new one is toll road scams.  Since most retirees are not opening new credit cards or applying for loans, it’s a good idea to seriously consider freezing your credit. Go to equifax.com, experian.com, and transunion.com to initiate the credit freeze. If you ever need to apply for a new credit card or any type of loan, you can always log in to unfreeze your credit. Google “AARP scams to avoid” and read up on many of the new scams and how they work.

Please remember the government (IRS, Medicare etc.) does not call you directly unless you’ve called them first and are working through a problem. I know this is common sense but if someone contacts you – IGNORE them. Don’t give them your birthday, Social Security number, Medicare number, nor policy number. Anyone legitimately calling you should be able to give you that information and ask you to verify whether it’s correct or not. We need to be more careful than ever with the AI that is out there. Scammers are using it, and it makes things seem more legitimate than ever. If something just doesn’t strike you as right, trust your gut and call someone for their opinion. Call your kids, friends, or even me or Cathy. We will be happy to help you if we can. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Another scam going around is stealing a deceased spouse’s identity to open up credit cards. Be sure to call the spouse’s credit card companies and request to close the accounts. Also call the three major credit reporting companies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. 

Good news for those who have a government pension like teachers and state/city retirees. The Social Security Fairness Act was just signed into law which eliminates the laws from the 1980s that substantially reduced Social Security benefits to those who paid into Social Security and government pension plans. So sometime down the road those people should be getting a nice increase in their Social Security checks. More good news – people turning 65 years old have a life expectancy of age 84 for men and 87 for women.

Your Social Security is increasing by 2.5% for 2025. Then they’re going to take $10 a month back out of that for the increase in your Part B premium which is going to be $185 a month for most people.

Cathy and I will be holding Medicare 101 meetings at the Horseshoe Diner down the hall from us on March 25th and March 26th at 6 pm. If you know anyone who’s going to be NEW to Medicare, we would appreciate you passing along this information to them. Just have them call us to register.

Thank you so much to those who passed out our business cards and gave us referrals! We had many new clients in large part because of the referrals. Please keep them coming. Also, if for some reason you are unhappy with your plan, let us know before April 1^st and we may be able to do something for you.

Cathy and I have been very busy with work, the farm family, church etc. but we are doing well. Our grandkids are growing like weeds. Micaiah turned 1 at the end of November and she’s walking like a pro now. Her three-year old brother Azariah loves Spiderman outfits and playing with puzzles. His big brother Elijah will be 5 next month, and he likes drawing and playing with his trains. They both dote over their little sister and take good care of her – for the most part. Andrew and Allie are expecting their first in March and things are going well in their preparation. Andrew just finished his Master of Divinity so he is finally done with his education. Our family is very blessed.

Stay warm and I hope you have a great new year. Thanks again for the referrals and please remember to fill out the Medicare survey and get it back to us by February 7^th.

Take care,

Chris and Cathy