New Action Caucus will have our monthly meeting this Thursday, 3/9/23 at 5:30 PM. UFT-represented newcomers are welcome and can sign up to attend here. We will discuss a number of topics and potential actions around:
- The ongoing UFT contract negotiations in the wake of DC37’s disastrous pattern.
- The new Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan (MAP) that UFT and DC37 are just about guaranteed to push through the MLC without a membership vote.
- The need for Tier 6 reform.
- The potential for new premiums in GHI and a mysterious RFP for in-service healthcare.
We will also leave plenty of time for questions.
Note: for New Action members affected by the elementary school parent teacher conferences (or other conflicts), we can catch you up in committee. The next official New Action meeting after this one will be in April.
New Action - UFT 
Mulgrew’s latest pronouncement is the implementation of a Medicare Advantage plan run by Aetna. He “assures” us the plan will not have too any pre authorizations. He seems to think that is the only problem with Medicare Advantage plans. Clearly, he knows little about health insurance, and is probably the victim of Artna’s “sales team,” I hope he realizes that Advantage plans are loaded with restrictions.
Agree, Howie. There are tons of problems with MAP plans, not the least of which is that it erodes traditional public Medicare and puts a critical mass of us in the hands of for-profit insurance giants. One thing I’m wondering is why he recently signaled to membership that they wouldn’t take the Aetna deal (now he is clearly going for it). Why the sudden change? Also, yeah, there are still pre-authorizations for: Acute hospital inpatient, long-term acute care, acute physical rehabilitation, skilled nursing
facility, and home care services.
Services/items that are not covered by Medicare.
Services that could be considered experimental and investigational in nature.
Services that are cosmetic in nature (e.g., breast augmentation, removal of excessive skin/tummy
tuck or eyelid surgery).
Select Part D medications
Specialty medications, some of which are Part B medications, which
may be amended from time to time.
Select drugs, therapies, procedures, services, and technologies covered by Medicare after the
Effective Date of the MA plan, subject to mutual agreement of the Parties.
Medicare will give you 100 days of coverage for a skilled nursing facility (called SNF). Aetna says they will,but I guarantee they will deny coverage after 21 days. That seems to be the magic number in these situations.(has something to do with co insurance if memory serves me correctly. I left the hospital system 19 years ago). One last thought: Let’s start taking up a collection to buy Mulgrew a nice plaque. We can inscribe it”Michael Mulgrew, Executive Vice President, Emblem Health.” Or maybe Aetna?
Howie
Ha! The way it’s looking, it’s much more likely to be Aetna than EmblemHealth.