Finding the right Medicare plan can be a confusing, time-consuming and stressful experience. However, Allsup Medicare Advisor® makes it easy to choose the best, most affordable Medicare option based on an individual’s healthcare needs and preferences. After a career as an architect and interior designer, Leslie O’Donohue approached her golden years with no worries— with the exception of finding a Medicare plan that suited her lifestyle. Racked with indecision and overwhelmed by too many choices, Leslie finally called Allsup. A representative identified her unique medical needs, and then led this busy senior to a Medicare plan that fit like a glove. Travel with Leslie through the Medicare maze and read about her successful outcome.
* This is a true story as told to Allsup.
A busy senior and former high-profile professional finds her search for the right Medicare option frustrating. But she put an end to that helpless feeling when she realized that….
It’s Their Job
By Chris Birk
Riverside, California — Leslie O’Donohue approached her 65th birthday with no worries. Applying for Medicare was a different story.
Ms. O’Donohue sifted through a host of healthcare plans as her landmark birthday neared. She found complicated descriptions and seemingly endless choices, but few simple answers.
The former architect and interior designer reached out to her son for help. An academic official at the University of California-Berkeley, her son suggested she try to work through the process alone. If that failed, he told her, she could seek the services of a company—Allsup—he recently had seen featured in The New York Times.
At first, Ms. O’Donohue decided to heed her son’s initial advice and go it alone. It was a brief pursuit.
She spent hours on the phone trying to get through to her local Social Security office. When that failed, she traveled there in person, only to wind up standing in line for hours.
Frustrated, she gave up on the self-serve approach. “You just don’t know what’s going on,” Ms. O’Donohue said. “With everything that’s going on with the recession and cuts, you really can’t get through to anybody. I actually never did talk to anybody in person.” Exasperated but still eager for help, not to mention a live voice, she called Allsup. It was as if a switch had been flipped. “What an incredible nightmare having to deal with this — then the beauty of going through Allsup,” Ms. O’Donohue said. “They do such a good job of giving you the best choices.”
Allsup blazed a trail more than 25 years ago, establishing itself as the nation’s leading Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) representation company. Since then, Allsup has secured
disability benefits for more than 130,000 deserving clients, helping them receive more than $12 billion in SSDI and Medicare benefits.
The company has added
Allsup Medicare Advisor® to its repertoire of services. Allsup experts work with clients to sort through a maze of options as they select the Medicare plan most suited to their needs.
There are thousands of Medicare plans available nationally and typically dozens locally. For Ms. O’Donohue, as with any other client, the first step was an in-depth discussion with an Allsup expert to identify her unique medical needs.
Together, the Allsup representative and Ms. O’Donohue collected and compiled the necessary information, including a health history, prescriptions, medical provider preferences and an overall financial picture.
For example, Ms. O’Donohue needed a plan that covered doctors and medical facilities in both California and Michigan. The Golden State native recently returned home after retiring but still travels to Michigan, where she ran her own business for two decades.
Soon after her initial consultation, Ms. O’Donohue received an easy-to-comprehend report explaining the Medicare plans available to her. Often these plans seem nearly identical, so the report also detailed the three plans that best met her distinct needs.
After exploring that trio of options, Ms. O’Donohue settled on a plan that provided the best possible coverage, all at the same cost of her regular Medicare premium.
“I don’t pay anything except the regular amount that would have been taken out anyway, and it’s a much better plan for me than the regular Medicare,” she said. “I can be seen by the doctors that I normally saw in Michigan and the doctors I wanted to see here at Eisenhower Medical Center. It was perfect.”
It also was a far cry from where she started. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is unbelievably cool,’ ” Ms. O’Donohue said. “When I tried to look at all of the options myself, it was just very complicated. This is a wonderful service — it’s a great value.”
Since securing her Medicare plan, Ms. O’Donohue has been on a mission to spread the word about Allsup’s unique service. She urges friends and even strangers who are nearing age 65 to sidestep the bureaucratic process and head straight for Allsup. “How much better can it get? This is a company that does all of the work,” Ms. O’Donohue said. “This is their job.”