By Suzanne Hale
My husband and I are seniors and planning to turn 76 this year. Except for some frustrations with the new normal, we are enjoying life. Three years ago, we drove 2 cars and 1 cat across this beautiful country, moving from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic.
We left the west coast with an HMO, but decided to research PPO’s since our nearest provider in the east was almost 300 miles away. My husband liked one in particular, so we joined. What a great change that was!
We have been active all our lives, going to the gym, jogging, hiking and traveling the world. Our new PPO pays for our gym experience which we feel is so important. We want to stay active and healthy! And that way, the provider won’t have to pay for a lot of office visits, surgeries, medications, hospital stays, etc.
Our old HMO allowed us to choose a primary care doctor, but we seldom found him available. Other doctors, physician attendants and nurse practitioners who picked up the slack often seemed disinterested and even annoyed at our concerns. This all made it very easy to leave the HMO.
Our new PPO allows us to choose our doctors, hospitals and other care providers.
Finally, as in life, nothing is perfect. There is that irritating matter of connecting with a source of information at the PPO office by phone when one has questions. For seniors, this problem is magnified by age.
· Many of us are hearing impaired. So the phone, even with aids, leaves us misunderstanding some of the answers we need.
· Going on line for people who are not savvy in the “technical jargon of the internet age” is another great frustration. I understand that this would probably be expensive to rectify, but if someone could try to fix this, many of us would be thrilled.
Most of all, we so appreciate the variety of plans that our new PPO offers. It’s almost as if they care, which is the whole idea. Right?
Sincerely, Two Seniors on the GO!