Medicare for Washington State PEBB Retirees can be confusing and difficult at times. PEBB (sometimes called SEBB) stands for Public Employees Benefits Board. This usually applies to teachers, many school employees and State employees in Washington State. Your Medicare options are different than the general public. You have Washington State Retiree insurance that include Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage options.
We have helped many clients that are on PEBB/ SEBB. Often they don’t even know where to start.
Most often we are helping them with education on Medicare and enrolling in Medicare. Some of our PEBB clients have us help with their Medicare Part D – Rx Plans to supplement their PEBB Supplement plan. More and more we are seeing PEBB/SEBB clients that are washing their hands of the PEBB/SEBB Medicare system completely.
Here is what people are telling us:
- “It is not easy in general to understand what PEBB/SEBB is offering their employees.”
- “It is not easy to get a hold of a live person to talk with at PEBB/SEBB.”
- “If I do get through to someone to talk to they aren’t always helpful.”
- “Since this is a State program they are not incentivized to treat me like a customer and serve my needs well. I end up feeling like a “number” at best.”
- “The PEBB system is not easy to navigate online.”
- “Most of the PEBB Medicare Plans offered are much more expensive than what I can get elsewhere.”
Medicare for Washington State PEBB Retirees isn’t easy. They do NOT contract with brokers / agents like us. We can’t sign you up for their plans. You are often left to figure it all out on your own. Something we tell every PEBB person though; once you leave the PEBB/SEBB system for Medicare you can’t go back. The question though, is it worth it to stay anyway? This will be something you need to decide for yourself.
We recently had a new client who said, “I can’t do this anymore, they aren’t there to help me, I sit on hold for hours. I want to get all my Medicare through Senior Solutions Group.”
We could easily make this a full-time job helping State employees navigate this, but we have to keep the lights on here at our business. If you would like to talk to us about your options, give us a call. We are not here to steer you away from PEBB /SEBB but if you do decide to become our client we are here for you. We never charge a fee.
Helpful links / pages for you:
Our Enroll in Medicare page
Our Youtube channel
