Via Benefits helps plan sponsors make sense of the various options available when it comes to their retiree population’s healthcare benefits. From Group Medicare Advantage Plans to individual marketplaces for Pre-Medicare retirees health reimbursement arrangements, Via Benefits helps plan sponsors manage change and helps retirees navigate choice. Subscribe to Eye on 65 with WTW’s Marianne Steger and Nina Krammer to find out how plan sponsors can sustain their retiree healthcare programs while offering their retirees personalized plans that fit their unique needs and budgets.
Included in this series:
- Episode 16: Two-time retiree failure
- Episode 15: Medicare when turning 65
- Episode 14: Breaking down the Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) law
- Episode 13: How the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) reduces health costs
- Episode 12: Demystifying OPEB
- Episode 11: The Retired World
- Episode 10: Making Part D plans affordable
- Episode 9: Which Medicare plans are best for retirees?
- Episode 8: Pre-Medicare Retiree Health Care Solution
- Episode 7: The ABCs of Medicare
- Episode 6: Who's to Complain?
- Episode 5: How the City of Memphis Reduced its OPEB Liabilities
- Episode 4: Built to Last?
- Episode 3: How to Preserve Retiree Health Care
- Episode 2: Searching for Sustainability
- Episode 1: The Great Trade-Off
Two-time retiree failure
Third time’s a charm. Marianne celebrates her retirement in this episode of Eye on 65.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Medicare when turning 65
Marianne and Nina discuss what happens when someone turns 65 years old in the United States.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Breaking down the Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) law
Helping you break down the HELPS law. What public safety retirees need to know.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify How the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) reduces health costs
Discussion about how the IRA, with a new law from Congress in place, makes for significant savings for today's retirees.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Demystifying OPEB
Host Marianne Steger and Chief Actuary Trevis Parson discuss what Other Post-Employment Benefits (aka OPEB) liabilities are and what plan sponsors can do to reduce them.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify The Retired World
The true story of five retirees, picked to share their Via Benefits experiences.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify About our host
Marianne Steger is on a mission to save retiree health care! She’s so devoted to the mission that she came out of retirement to become the director of public sector strategy for Willis Towers Watson. Previously, Marianne was the director of health care for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), where she ran the health care program for nearly a quarter of a million retirees and helped them transition from the OPERS group plan to the individual Medicare marketplace. With more than 35 years of experience in health plan strategy and design, employee benefits, labor relations, and public policy, Marianne works with public sector plan sponsors every day to help them preserve retiree health care benefits.
Episode 10:
Making Part D plans affordable
Drug coverage affordability really does exist in the individual Medicare marketplace!
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Which Medicare plans are best for retirees?
Understand the differences between group Medicare and individual Medicare plans and which plans are best for retirees
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 8:
Pre-Medicare Retiree Health Care Solution
Many workers retire before they are Medicare-eligible. Providing retiree health care coverage for them is quite challenging and expensive. Host Marianne Steger explains how the recent changes to the ACA made by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), have made health care for Pre-Medicare retirees accessible and more affordable.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 7:
The ABCs of Medicare
A, B, C, D. Confused by the Medicare alphabet soup? Listen in as John Barkett and Marianne Steger sort through the ABCs of Medicare in this latest episode.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Episode 6:
Who’s to Complain?
Get the scoop on what it’s like for a retiree to transition from a group health plan to a Medicare marketplace. In this episode, Donna Adassa talks candidly about her Medicare marketplace transition experience, including her aha moment while at an introductory seminar on Medicare, how she selected her health care plan, and her enrollment experience. Finally, she covers why she prefers the Medicare marketplace to her former group health plan.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Episode 5:
How the City of Memphis Reduced its OPEB Liabilities
How can an innovative approach to retiree health care help solve a city’s financial liabilities? The City of Memphis’ CFO shares her lessons learned.
The City of Memphis was facing $1.3 billion in unfunded OPEB liabilities and needed a solution. Our guest, Chief Financial Officer Shirley Ford, shares how she helped the city and its retirees find a win-win solution using the Individual Medicare Marketplace.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Episode 4:
Built to Last?
How to determine if your retiree health care program is future-proof
Providing retiree health care is more difficult than ever. As a result, the percentage of public sector employers who provide these benefits is shrinking. In this episode of Eye on 65, Marianne and John share the seven-question stress test that can be used to determine if your retiree health care program is built to last.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Episode 3:
How to Preserve Retiree Health Care
The individual Medicare marketplace – the best kept secret for delivering affordable retiree health care
What market dynamic allow individual Medicare marketplaces to offer better value than group plans and what does the transition to the individual Medicare marketplace really look like for both plan sponsors and their retirees? John and Marianne share their thoughts.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Episode 2:
Searching for Sustainability
Options available for maintaining retiree health benefits
In this episode, John and Marianne discuss common challenges and goals for public sector plan sponsors in preserving retiree health care. Tune in to hear how public sector plan sponsors can keep their commitment of providing retiree health care, while lowering costs and providing affordable health plan options for retirees.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Episode 1:
The Great Trade-Off
What makes working in the public sector unique and what’s at stake if retiree health care goes away
Hosts Marianne Steger and John Barkett kick off the series by talking about what makes public sector employees the strongest thread in the fabric of our communities. They also share how public sector employers can reduce their retiree health care liabilities.
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Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher 