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Michigan Association of Retired School Personnel

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Turning 65: Important Updates to Medicare Enrollment Process for MPSERS members

Health Insurance

If you are already receiving Social Security retirement or disability benefits or railroad retirement checks, you will be contacted a few months before you become eligible for Medicare.  If you are not already getting social security benefits, you should contact the Social Security Administration about three months before your 65th birthday to sign up for Medicare.  Their number is 800-772-1213.

Several months prior to your 65th birthday, Medicare will send you a red, white and blue Medicare card showing whether you have Part A, Part B or both. In order to receive coverage through MPSERS (Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System), you must have Part B. Keep your card in a safe place so you will have it when you need it.

Upon receipt of your Medicare card, you MUST contact the Office of Retirement Services at 1-800-381-5111 and provide them with your Medicare ID number. Failing to do this step could result in a gap or loss of coverage.  This allows Medicare and MPSERS to coordinate your benefits. When you turn 65, your coverage will be Medicare Plus Blue Group PPO. This a Medicare Advantage plan. You will also continue to receive your prescription drug benefit from MPSERS.

MARSP suggests that just before you turn age 65, you contact MPSERS and BCBSM to ensure that your enrollment in Medicare is complete.

 

Priority Health announces 2018 MPSERS informational meeting schedule

Health Insurance

Priority Health recently announced their 2018 MPSERS informational meeting schedule.

You may join online or in person.

You’ll learn:

  • Important tips to consider before choosing a plan
  • What to expect from your health insurance company during retirement
  • How you can save money with Cost Estimator
  • How to choose the best plan for you

October 3, 2018 – Webinar @ 10am

In-person meetings (2:00 – 3:30 pm):

October 8, 2018 – Traverse City – Hotel Indigo

October 9, 2018 – Kalamazoo – KRESA Service Center

October 10, 2018 – Wayne – Wayne RESA

October 11, 2018 – Clinton Twp. – Wayne State University Macomb Education Center

October 17, 2018 – Grand Rapids – Kent ISD

Click here to register for the time and date that works best for you.

Leading from strength: MARSP chapters have a strong message

Executive Director

Have you ever thought about the nature of leadership and what it takes to maintain a vital and robust organization? I’ve been considering it a lot lately, after participating in a series of training workshops with dozens of chapter-level MARSP leaders throughout the state.

In June, I met with 130 participants representing 50 MARSP chapters at workshops held on consecutive days in Kalamazoo, Auburn Hills, Gaylord and Escanaba. It’s an exchange of ideas on how to meet the needs of current and potential members that occurs every other year.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that we continue to grow MARSP and ensure Michigan public school retirees have a loud, collective voice in protecting the health care and other benefits that they worked so hard to earn during their careers.

My key takeaway from the workshops: While we certainly need to adapt and evolve to ensure we’re communicating with new and potential members in the way that they prefer – whether it’s a brochure sent through good old-fashioned snail mail or by social media outreach – there’s still no substitute for face-to-face interaction.

For example, it’s important for MARSP chapters to maintain a physical presence in their local school districts and buildings to cement relationships with future retirees. We’ve long accomplished this by staging retirement planning workshops at the local level. But we don’t need to wait until public school workers are nearing retirement to make our presence known.

Consider how the MARSP Foundation Inc. recently funded the classroom project requests of more than 60 teachers across the state through DonorsChoose.org. The $10,000 donation benefited 62 teachers in 54 different Michigan schools from Detroit to the Upper Peninsula, in projects that ranged from buying books and art supplies to bugs and flexible classroom seating. In total, we were able to fund 65 projects that benefited more than 3,300 students. It was a cost-effective way to make a big impact in classrooms.

And as an offshoot of the effort, we were able to make connections with a sizable number of potential future MARSP members – potentially further strengthening the organization for the collective benefit of all current and future Michigan public school retirees.

No matter our role with MARSP, it’s in our best interest to help potential members understand the importance of banding together and strengthening our voice in Lansing as the organization advocates for policies that best serve public school retirees. We shouldn’t shy away from directly asking current or former public school employees to join MARSP and making them aware of the sacrifices that previous generations made to gain the benefits they now enjoy, including by going on strike at the risk of their own livelihoods.

To avoid sliding back and losing hard-earned benefits, we must continue to look forward. For MARSP chapter leaders, that might mean adapting the latest communication techniques to ensure we are effectively reaching younger potential members on social media platforms.

The good news is that, while we might want to change the delivery method, we don’t need to change our messaging. It’s as true now as it was then: For more than 60 years, MARSP has been the only organization totally dedicated to promoting and supporting the rights and needs of retired public school personnel and serving as their legislative voice.

That’s a message that I’m confident will still resonate when the next round of leadership workshops are held in 2020.