Words of wisdom: What you can learn from my Medicare enrollment journey

Bob Cebrick 
Aetna Medicare Advantage Member

“My name is Robert Cebrik. I was born in a town called Irvington. Went to college in New Brunswick at Rutgers. I got my bachelors and master’s in environmental science. I was hired by the state of New Jersey as an environmental specialist for over forty-two years. And ten years ago, I moved to Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

And since Mark lived here, I sold my house and moved in with him. For the last probably twenty years of my working career there, I had Aetna as my main provider. When I moved into retirement, I worked with human resources to evaluate a number of options for my health care. They provided me with a listing of the options. I went online and I evaluated them. The best program that worked for me was the Aetna Medicare Advantage program. The copays were very reasonable, also, whether you went out of network, and also checked the doctors that I was going to at that time and they were all covered. So that was a key reason why I chose Aetna.

I love old houses and I love redoing them. Over the years, we’ve redone a number of houses, but I wanted to do other things, even though I enjoyed that tremendously. I felt that I either wanted to travel. I started looking into ancestry at that time. I moved into different areas of volunteering. So, I volunteered for a period of time and still do to this day with the Doylestown historical society.

The Aetna Healthy Home Visit, which I get on a yearly basis, will come out, take your blood pressure, do your weight, and do some balance activities, look over your medications, talk about your lifestyle, what you eat, and then make recommendations. The key one that I found most useful was getting a blood pressure monitor.

Shortly after I retired, my shoulders were constantly giving me problems, so I had rotator cuff surgery. Through Aetna, I was able to get physical therapy. My physical therapy lasted four to five months. It was very useful and throughout this whole period, there was no problems with regard to coverage, copays. It was a very easy process. I just got it diagnosed. Showed up at the hospital. They did the surgery. Got my appointments for the physical therapy. And the process all went very smoothly, and I was well covered.

Over the past year I’ve worked on organizing a trip to Europe and one of the benefits of traveling is knowing that I have the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan.

My father died in his fifties so it’s important to me to maintain a healthy lifestyle. One of the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is that you can enjoy life, be with friends, relatives, through a number of years, I hope."

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Aetna Medicare Advantage PPO plan with Extended Service Area (ESA)

• Nationwide coverage with providers who accept the plan and are eligible for Medicare payment
• Emergency and urgent care visits covered during international travel

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Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan

To learn more, contact Aetna Member Services, Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM, ET:

• SHBP call 1-866-234-3129 (TTY: 711)
• SEHBP call 1-866-816-3662 (TTY: 711)
• https://www.aetnamedicare.com/soct

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Aetna Medicare is a HMO, PPO plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in our plans depends on contract renewal. Out-of-network/non-contracted providers are under no obligation to treat Aetna members, except in emergency situations. Please call our customer service number or see your Evidence of Coverage for more information, including the cost-sharing that applies to out-of-network services. The formulary, provider and/or pharmacy network may change at any time. You will receive notice when necessary. See Evidence of Coverage for a complete description of plan benefits, exclusions, limitations and conditions of coverage. Plan features and availability may vary by service area. Participating physicians, hospitals and other health care providers are independent contractors and are neither agents nor employees of Aetna. The availability of any particular provider cannot be guaranteed, and provider network composition is subject to change.

Nancy Baton
Aetna Medicare Advantage member 

Hi, my name is Nancy Baton. I am a retired New Jersey high school principal and middle school principal. And I am truly enjoying my retirement.

I live with my husband here in Westfield, New Jersey, and I've been married to Bill. It'll be 38 years this summer. We have two children grown children, and I have five grandsons.

My friends are very important to me. I have one group of friends with whom I play Mahjong once a week on Fridays and another group that we play a variety of card games. Just enjoying each other's company is what's so important to me.

When it came time for me to enroll in Medicare, I wanted the one with the least amount of hassles, and I had been told what a great health plan Aetna has. That's why I chose Aetna, and I'm very happy I did.

When I decided to go with the Aetna Medicare advantage plan, I chose it because of the wide range of coverage and the low copays. And I found that I was not limited in my choice of doctors.

We use CVS pharmacy. It's very convenient. I even have a drive up window. And what we like is that when our prescriptions are ready, they text us every year.

Aetna offers the opportunity for a healthy home visit. Once a year, they send a nurse right here in my home and the nurse examines me. And actually this year she found something. So she did a test on me and my doctor called me and said, you need to see a vascular surgeon and I'm under his care. Now I never would've caught something that could be potentially very dangerous had that nurse not come to my home.

I love to walk. I recently had a spinal fusion, so I've been unable to walk, but I walked between two and five miles with a friend almost every day. I'm recuperating now from the surgery. And I had a great deal of support from Aetna because they supported what the doctor recommended. And I am now in physical therapy twice a week. And I'm really looking forward to getting rid of my back brace and just starting to walk again, having the support of Aetna and not having to worry about bills or paperwork, or is this covered. I didn't have any of that. All I do now is concentrate on my recovery.

If you're not healthy, you're not going anywhere. So Aetna has helped me stay on track.