Seniors scrambling after United Healthcare drops doctors from Medicare Advantage
Friday December 20, 2013, 10:23 PM
BY COLLEEN DISKIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A popular, AARP-endorsed Medicare plan is dropping a large number of doctors from its network, generating cries of outrage nationwide from older patients and medical groups who say the seniors were not given enough time to shop for new insurance.
Betty Baker, 70, of Wyckoff, said she was notified in late November that the Medicare Advantage plan operated by United Healthcare would be dropping four of her longtime doctors on Feb. 1, including the eye doctor who recently performed her cataract surgery.
“My husband and I knew this has always been considered one of the best plans, so we didn’t know if it made sense to switch,” said Baker, who ended up reenrolling even though her husband also had his primary care doctor dropped. “We didn’t have a whole lot of time to decide what to do.”