Lawsuit medical coverage cards arriving in the mail

Membership cards for United Healthcare AARP Medicare Supplement Plan N, which will restore printer and Guild retirees to their approximate retirement-day medical coverage, are arriving in the mail for the 50 people who will benefit from the successful healthcare lawsuit against the Beacon Journal.

The $2 and $5 co-pay cards from Medical Mutual of Ohio, which will be handling the prescriptions, arrived earlier.  

Both prescription and medical coverage will be restored to approximate retirement-day levels, beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

As an example of how much the 50 retirees may benefit:

Olesky paid $1,285.83 for his medical costs in 2012, but would have paid about $600 under Plan N for a difference of $685.83. If Olesky hit his average of paying $3,407.78 per year in medical costs for the 2005-2012 period covered by the reimbursement agreement, he would save about $2,800 a year in medical costs to go with the projected $2,700 in savings from the $2 prescription co-pay card for a combined projected total of about $5,500. Others benefitting from the lawsuit may save even more.

BJ Settlement Administrator Roger Messmore, who has been at the Beacon for 32 years in Human Resources, is handling the reimbursement claims for extra medical and prescription expenses from a $100,000 fund. If the total exceeds $100,000, which is not expected, then the reimbursements would be pro-rated.

Those checks have not been received yet.

Forty-five retired printers and their spouses are eligible.

They are Dave and Gina White, of Venice, Florida, who began the lawsuit on behalf of the printers; Bob and Linda Abbott, Massillon (Bob pursued relief informally on his own before he joined the Whites’ lawsuit); Ruth and Tom West, Rittman; Hugh and Sharon Downing, The Villages, Florida; Larnie and Stephanie Greene, Hartville; Joe Catalano, Akron; Lloyd and Claudine Bigelow, Cuyahoga Falls; John Costello, Akron; Dick Gresock, Medina; Henry and Kathleen Heinbuck, North Canton; Denzil Parker, Wadsworth; Francis and Rita Reeves, Akron; Bob Walker, Medina; Cecil and Josephine Santaferro, Akron; Sid Sprague, Loveland, Colorado; Isabel Watson (Blanton’s widow), Naples, Florida; Janice Hogg (Trammel’s widow), Waynesville, North Carolina; Russ and Martel Bendel, Wadsworth; Eunice and Bonnie Collins, Copley; Richard and Patricia Fair, Akron; Marjorie Hanna, Wadsworth; Ed Hanzel, Barberton; Bob Kendall, Berlin Center; Harriet Ledbetter, Canton; Norm and Naomi Mattern, Wellsville; Charles O’Neill, Akron; Fred Pollack, Akron; Don Reppart, North Canton; Ron Sanderlin, Canton; Charles Stadelman, Tallmadge; and Ray and Amaryllis Wolfe, Greentown.

Five Guild retirees and a spouse are eligible for the settlement, which depended on the wording in retirement letters.

They are John Olesky, of Tallmadge, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Guild retirees in 2009; retired reporter Dick McBane, Lilburn, Georgia; maintenance retiree Harold Bailey and wife Elizabeth, Kent; copy desk retiree Dick McLinden, North Canton, and retired photographer Don Roese, Cuyahoga Falls.

U.S. Federal District Court Judge David Dowd approved the settlement Nov. 9.

In early 2007, shortly after Canadian media mogul David Black's Black Press acquired the Beacon Journal, the newspaper switched healthcare coverage plans and drastically reduced these retirees' benefits. 

That sparked a reaction among Guild and printer retirees that led to the successful lawsuits.