They say staying active in your retirement years is good for you. Connie Blum has taken that to heart as a Medicare advisor — something she’s been doing since she retired in 1998.
Twenty-seven years later at the age of 94, the Kettering resident is still taking calls, answering people’s questions about Medicare.
Her efforts and tenacity earned her a place in this year’s Ohio Senior Hall of Fame.
WYSO’s Mike Frazier spoke with Connie about her role as a certified volunteer Medicare counselor with the State Health Insurance Assistance Program.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Connie Blum: The mission of this program is threefold: to help those folks new to Medicare to understand their benefits and what else they're eligible for under Medicare; and to help people during annual open enrollment to review their present plans to see whether they wanna keep them or switch to something different. And we also help troubleshoot billing and coverage issues when people come to us and say, 'Well, I'm being billed for this and I don't think I should be and I don't know what to do,' and so forth. So that's our threefold mission.
Mike Frazier: How do you conduct these sessions? Are they in person, over the phone, online?
Blum: Well, we do a little bit of everything. During open enrollment, which is every year, Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, through the SHIP (State Health Insurance Assistance Program) office in Columbus, we hold what we call Medicare checkup days around all the counties. In Montgomery County, we have three different checkup days scheduled, and these are times when additional counselors come in from the office in Columbus, along with some of the local volunteer counselors.
People make appointments and we see people all day long from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and people call and make appointments and come in to various senior centers and other localities. And we help them review their current plan if they'd want to keep them or change. So we just do whatever we need to do. We meet with people wherever we can and we do some telephoning. I get help requests from people out of the state of Ohio, and through computer programs I can access plans where they are. So I do people on email, I do people on telephone; We do whatever we need to do.
Frazier: Why do you do this?
Blum: Back in the late 1980s, my mother became ill in Florida, and I needed to move her up here to Ohio. I had to take over the management of her affairs and I didn't know anything about Medicare. I knew it was something she had, that was all I knew. So I had to learn it, and I had to learn pretty quickly. So after I retired for a couple years, I didn't do much of anything. And then I began thinking about what I might like to do and because, as I was helping my mother, I was at first overwhelmed and confused about all of it. And then I gradually figured it out and kind of before I knew it I would be helping other people who were asking questions about it. So I thought maybe it's something that I could do, so I went through the training program and I've been doing it ever since.
Frazier: May I ask your age?
Blum: Yes, I'm 94.
Frazier: What is your secret, if I may ask?
Blum: I guess the first thing is good genes. My mother, even with her illness, lived to 90. My grandmother, which is another whole generation removed back from that, was 89. I guess the first thing they say about longevity is have good genes. I don't know what the secret is. Everybody can tell you the basics. Have a good diet. Exercise. Have a positive outlook. Do things that you like and that interest you, and be forward-looking. I like to say it's not how old you are, it's how you are. And we just try to think positively despite whatever aches and pains come along with getting older, and keep looking forward.
Frazier: You're staying active too, so you're keeping your mind working. That's pretty important, isn't it?
Blum: Absolutely. Very, very important to do that, whatever way you can. And there is actual research showing that the single most important thing older people can do to stay healthy and age well is to maintain social contact. And socialization is considered a very, very important part of the aging process if you want to age successfully.
If you need advice on Medicare during this fall’s open enrollment period, go to SHIP HELP dot ORG. Maybe you'll get personalized help from Connie!
