We took our son to the Dr today, they told us our healthcare is inactive. I called Blue Cross, they say you cancelled it Aug 1. You told us as part of our severance we would have our healthcare benefits for 12 additional months. Did you change your minds? I can't reach a person, and can't log in to the Ex-employee's benefits site. I did all the pre-separation prep you wanted me too. Even signed the stinking waiver. Is this another cost cutting measure?
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Since I met rule of 75, I was told by one rep I could take COBRA which for the family plan was about $600 cheaper than the unsubsidized Retiree plan. I call back again to ask a question regarding COBRA and was told since I qualify for the extremely expensive unsubsidized Retiree Plan, I do not qualify for COBRA. I spoke to a higher level manager who than told me the first benefits rep was correct and I do qualify for COBRA. So that was a big relief. So Aug 1st comes and I go into the Benefits site and see an action Item to enroll in retiree benefits but no explanation on how to enroll in COBRA, so once again call Benefits, wait 2 hours for a call back. The rep tells me “since you qualify for retiree medical benefits I do not qualify for COBRA. WTF. So I ask for her manager. She tells me her peers confirm I do not Qualify. I again insist on speaking to a manager. She comes back after putting me on hold for around 20 minutes and by golly I do qualify for COBRA!! Woo Hoo. Puts me on hold again for a long time and......disconnects me. No callback. Now my I am really upset. I call benefits again....wait for another 2 hour callback. Before the next rep could say anything I tell her I want to talk to a COBRA specialist and quickly told her what happened and was transferred to a very sweet rep who knew what to do. And guess what? She quickly enrolled me in COBRA! All I had to do was choose not to take the Retiree Medical and apparently the COBRA option comes up! Had I known that, I would not have wasted an entire day and could have done this myself. Sorry for the long rant!! This is just one example of Benefits reps giving surplussed employees the wrong information!! It’s obvious that this 2 week clusterf was not enough time to train the Benefits reps!!
You should probably be contacting who actually controls this than posting in a forum asking these questions. Just sayin’.
It appears if you want Cobra dental and eyecare you have to call the useless Benefits number. Each time I have tried to reach a human I either drop back into the menu loop or the system hangs up on me. Thanks, T.
If you go to the Retiree/Former Employee site, and sign in with “fe”xxxx (fe=former employee xxxx=4 digits of your UID) then go into benefits and sign up for Cobra. Your amount owed will show after you make your choices for benefits you want. Your bill will not come out until the 9th, but you will have coverage. Good luck to everyone and I wish you all well!
@ikry- you’re so right! My last day is Thursday and I had a few questions, read every single document they sent, emailed the surplus “support “ and called HR, got 3 different answers every time. I’d reply to the Surplus email people and let them know I’m getting conflicting answers to important questions, ask again, and they give me yet another different answer. So fu$&in& annoying, especially like you said, doing everything in 14 days, which some may think isn’t a big deal, until you actually run into an issue then yes it’s annoying. But whatever- at this point, I’m done, and thank god. Good luck OP with your insurance, hope it works out for you.
The fact that they pushed everyone out the door in 14 days this time didn't help. With the shortened timeframe, there's probably a lot of stuff that people overlooked, or didn't know about, or couldn't get the right people on the phone to make sure it was set up.
Leave it to T to screw this up and leave the “surplus” employees without healthcare for a “brief” period of time.
Call the benefits center and ask them to expedite your paperwork -but- it could still take up to 72 hours to process it and restart your coverage.
Once again, they laid off the wrong people.
@OP here: I heard from Benefits some three hours after I talked with Blue Cross. I read in @1emk's post that Benefits mentioned there would be some interruption between 7/31 and the time healthcare would be available again - I probable heard that but it didn't register. The Benefits rep stated that we have to wait for and pay a bill from AT&T for our share of the healthcare coverage for that coverage to become active again. In the meantime, Benefits provided an "advocacy" number, 8772768444, though for what they will advocate I do not know. The Benefits rep stated we can expect the bill to go out August 9. Reflecting on this, good old AT&T saved a half month of benefits payments with this move - anything for a buck. Don't get sick, injured, or suffer any other maladies at least until after Aug 15. God bless us every one. We need it.
I took the severance but first called benefits about coverage and was told I would get some degree of subsidized health ins. As soon as I was irrevocably committed. Oh no your not m75 qualified. Bubye.
That pos lying Jeff bragged about extending health for up to 6 months. What that sob did not say was it’s for people not qualified for retirement. I had family (not spouse as my spouse had health ins on their job) but sine I qualify for retiree it would cost me 1300 per month. I told them to f— off and moved on to hers. What if I did not have a spouse? Or what if my spouse did not have health ins? Not saying the company owes me as they don’t but hearing what pos say we get up to 6 months and the truth is it depends pisses me off more. I recently dropped three att services. Good riddance won’t give them any more than I have to. I’m sure they will loose thousands or even millions as people who got laid off tell their family and friends what happens. Tmobile, Comcast and streaming will be the big winners. Don’t wish evil on att but don’t care if it happens either.
Something is missing here. They have to send you packages. When I retired, they sent me two, one Cobra and one retiree. Previously when I got laid off, I got a Cobra. The medical was subsidized, but I still had to chip in the share I had been doing, as well as opt in to dental and vision.
They don't just "tell" you about the medical.
I attended a conference call with HR the week prior to my last day. HR said my insurance provider (Blue Cross Blue Shield) may take a few days to transition from active to inactive/retiree status. The HR representative specifically mentioned there could be issues during the first few days of August if your active employee insurance ended on 7/31/2020. I transferred to “retiree” healthcare benefits effective 8/1/2020 and my physician was unable to get authorization today for an upcoming surgery in September. Hopefully your issue (and mine) will be resolved in a few days.
Typical At&T good luck calling the deathstar for support.
@OP- I know what you are talking about as I have been through similar. Are you trying to log in using FE before your UID? I hope you get everything worked out!
Oh $h!t! I'm truly sorry to hear this, I hope it's a mixed up to get straightened out, and not what another poster mentioned about M75. If that is the case, then AT&T failed to make it clear or to properly disclose about whether or not qualified. Either way, and a clusterF.
No rule of 75, had enough time for 6 mos subsidized plus another 6 at full price. Still awaiting a call from Benefits. Get the feeling it was a mix up (hopefully).
If you met rule of 75 but didn't qualify for retiree medical subsidies you are SOL. They forgot to mention that when they said they would be giving 6 months of subsidized medical insurance to folks who were surplused.
I am very sorry. Hopefully a mixup and you get your benefits.
For mgmt employees, I believe the extended health care varied depending on years of service. You had to have a certain number of years to get the full amount. Less service was a shorter coverge window.