Samaritan members have a way to connect to other members inside their online membership dashboard. It’s called Member Connect, and it’s basically a private forum for members to discuss a variety of topics regarding their membership including general membership discussions, health and nutrition, medical providers, medical issues, and prayer requests. It’s a great resource for those who are looking for a way to get questions answered from other members. I’ve gone through several of the threads are members responses are very helpful with the different experiences they’ve had, suggestions, medical resources, tips and advice, and even just “what do you think about this?” kind of topics. It’s not a giant forum yet as it’s relatively new, but I expect that it will grow significantly.
I love forums and have a feeling I’ll be bouncing into that one a lot. 🙂 Thank you Samaritan Ministries!
I need information from other members about interfacing Samaritan with Medicare options. We are reaching retirement age, have to sign up for Medicare, and possibly other plans Medicare offers.
Have you compared staying with Samaritan vs. Medicare options?
I would appreciate your advice!
In Christ,
Kathleen
Hi Kathleen, hopefully others will chime in, but from what I’ve heard it seems to be a pretty personalized decision. Some members find that their medicare supplement options are cheaper than Samaritan, others are finding that Samaritan is cheaper. Samaritan does have many members on medicare. In addition to cost I have heard of some staying with Samaritan (plus medicare) because of the christian and moral nature plus enjoying the more personal direct sharing aspect. Samaritan is second payer so anything that Medicare didn’t cover would then be shareable to Samaritan assuming they meet the guidelines. I would assume it’s not just a matter of premium cost but also the deductible and amount/type of things covered by the supplement choice, plus how many potential headaches the other options could produce. Likely not an easy decision for some people, although I appreciate the simplicity and freedom that Samaritan offers so we plan to stay members even while on Medicare, once that day comes. In case you don’t get a response, I would ask Samaritan if they have any insight for the member experience, and if you’re already a Samaritan member asking on the dashboard may also be a good resource. Thanks for asking!
Kathleen, did you decide what to do with keeping Samaritan as a supplement for Medicare. I am struggling with that decision now. I have Samaritan Classic at the moment as well as Medicare A and B. I am just at this moment going to see how this works out. I wanted some imput as to how it was working for others.