I have been a member of Optima-Medicare for about two years. I have been very happy with the support and service that I have received from Optima, but I wanted to bring a special situation to your attention. Note that there will be humor injected into this note and this is a politically correct warning of such.
I needed to get a new C-pap machine since my current one was starting to run poorly. Note, it was ~12 years old and conventional insurance allows me a new one every five years. Considering I have been using a C-pap for over 30 years (my first one was signed by Fred Flintstone), I did not think it was going to be a big deal. Boy was I wrong! I did not have a copy of my sleep study, done over 15 years ago. None of the doctors, hospitals, nor supply stores keep sleep studies over 5 years. Medical Equipment Company, whom Optima uses for supplies could not authorize a new one because they did not have a sleep study in their records, though they did help me with supplies. And the worse part...I was now on Medicare (don't get me started on donut holes) working with an insurance company I barely knew.
Being the engineer that I am, I decided to have a "face-to-face" meeting with a representative of Optima to understand what plan of action was required to get my new C-pap. I showed up at your offices in the Town Center, only to find out that there is no real "customer support center" that I could just walk in and get a question answered. Once I was able to get in, I will tell you jail is much easier, I was helped by a wonderful lady, sorry I don't remember her name, who was one of the phone support staff at the desk, to understand my predicament. At this time, she introduced me to Rosanne Perez, who was empathetic to my situation. I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that this was one of the first times she has had an actual customer come to the office. Note: Optima did not look they treated her like some of the programmers I have worked with over the years: locked in the basement with unlimited supplies of Starbucks and Hot Pockets.
Over the next two months, Rosanne was able to help me schedule a new sleep doctor, sleep study, and, ultimately, a new C-pap that was reasonable in cost. During that time, she contacted me to see how I was doing and get my feedback on the process and the people I was in contact with. She even recognized me when my wife and I were leaving Olive Garden.
Dealing with insurance is never an easy thing and the complexity of Medicare makes it a level worse. Rosanne and the Medicare Team have done an outstanding job working with me to understand my situation and get me answers when I needed them. I wanted to be sure you know they are wonderful people.