HMSA Extra Benefits

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Is anyone here retired and have HMSA Akamai Advantage with your Medicare coverage?
Part of the “benefits” we are supposed to receive include a $200 OTC allowance every quarter.  You can use their online order form and have them ship things to you from the catalog, like a $2.00 can of tuna for $7.00.  Or you can go into Long’s with their app that is designed to let you scan bar codes and tell you if the item is qualified or not.  The app scanner has not worked for over a year.  It’s the same error message saying something about the meat counter at Aldi’s.

Anyone else experiencing this or other issues?

[kalianna]

We got a notice more than a year ago that we should spend $200 from the online CVS catalogue. Great. We ordered tons of band aids, neosporin and ibuprofen. Still had too much money left and bought a high falutinʻ digital scale. Order came in two almost empty huge boxes, his and hers. Band aids are garbage, average lifespan two hours unless you get them wet and then they immediately fall off. Then this year we got an actual "credit card" that can be used in the store. Great, weʻll get some GOOD band aids. Not. Only good for CVS stuff. DOGE, where are you on this one? Eight hundred bucks a year for garbage products we donʻt need. Could I just get $100 off my premium instead? HAH!

[ChunksterK]

I regularly take a lady who doesn't drive shopping with her HMSA debit card. It works at CVS (Long's) and Walmart. Needless to say the money goes farther at Walmart, and there are lots of things covered at both places. I have seen her buy dozens of over the counter meds, just about anything to do with dental care, vitamins, foot care items such as arch supports, elastic knee braces, and first aid items. And I probably haven't seen it all because I am one of several volunteers from church who take her to town. Today I asked about the catalog ordering, and she said it was practically useless. On a rare occasion or two, some item we expected to be covered wasn't, but as she put it, "I can afford to pay for that after getting all this free stuff."

Hope this helps.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Hope this helps.

If you remember the next time you take her shopping, would you ask how she preps her in store shopping? Does she make a list? Does the app scanner work for her?

[ChunksterK]

She does make a list, but she does not use the app scanner. (No smart phone.) As far as prep, she doesn't even separate her HMSA items from the other things she buys at Walmart. We scan them pretty much randomly at the self checkout, and she always swipes the HMSA card first when it's time to pay. That last part is very important, needless to say. Whatever HMSA doesn't pay then goes on her credit card. We do look at the receipts, and like I said, it's rare for an expected item not to be covered.

[Punatang]

This post and some posts following transferred from “Seen any good movies lately” thread

Somewhere, desperately trying to log in, HiloJulie is very proud of you.  You've really taken up the slack and I'm looking forward to your ultimate success in turning every thread into a national politics outcry thread in some shape or form.  You can do it.  I'm sure Rob is very grateful for your respect.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

into a national politics outcry thread

Greed and deceit come in many guises. Most of my time recently has been on the phone with HMSA about their Extra Benefits program. They have promised on their mother’s grave, three times since last Friday that an appropriate supervisor from the appropriate department would return my call. No call. They take our money every month, presumptively for a program that does not work entirely as advertised for well over a year. I get stink eye every time I walk into the Long’s in Keaau trying to use my benefits when there is one cashier and 6 people in line. The two young liquor thieves who ran out the door with a couple bottles of whiskey the last time I was there are treated better. They waste less time for the cashier at the checkout I suppose.

But like I say, many guises, so perhaps something else came to your mind?

[Punatang]

That sounds extremely frustrating and I can sympathize.  The first idea I had for you was that maybe you should start going to church where Chunkster goes. They seem to have it wired.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

They seem to have it wired.

Most I’ve talked to don’t have it wired.  They think the benefits are free, but don’t understand the money is taken from our social security and returned to us as “benefits.”.  HMSA takes $185 a month from our social security investment, and returns $200 a quarter as benefits.  If enrollees don’t spend all of it some don’t mind because they think it’s free stuff.  It’s not free, we’ve paid for it from our first FICA withholding.
No one at HMSA knows where the unused funds go.  Ha ha.  Nobody who works at HMSA is retired so they don’t use the card and understand its glaring flaws.

Nobody who could fix the problem is ever reachable by phone.

[Punatang]

Most I’ve talked to

Are you calling this number? 800-790-6019  HMSA's Extra Benefits Number