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Page 14 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, AugusT 26, 2022 Say nir Sa a y Senior Seni by Jim Miller What is an Annual Notice of Change? Dear Savvy Senior, Last year I received a “notice of change” letter from my Medicare provider. Should I expect another one this year, and what should I do with it? Medicare Rookie Dear Rookie, The letter you’re asking about is actually referred to as the Annual Notice of Change (or ANOC), which is a letter you receive from your Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D prescription drug plan in late September. (People with only a Medigap plan don’t receive these because Medigap plans do not have benefi t changes from year to year). So yes, you should expect to receive another letter next month. The ANOC gives a summary of any changes in your plan’s costs and coverage that will take effect Jan. 1 of the next year. The ANOC is typically mailed with the plan’s “evidence of coverage,” which is a more comprehensive list of the plan’s costs and benefi ts for the upcoming year. You should review these notices to see if your plan will continue to meet your health care needs in 2023. If you are dissatisfi ed with any upcoming changes, you can make changes to your coverage during fall open enrollment, which runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. Here are three types of changes to look for: Costs: If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, find out what you can expect to pay for services in 2023. Costs such as deductibles and copayments can change each year. For example, your plan may not have had a deductible in 2022, but it could have one in 2023. A deductible is the amount of money you owe out-of-pocket before your plan begins to cover your care. Another example is that your plan may increase the copayments you owe for visits to your primary care provider or specialists. Coverage: If you have an Advantage plan with prescription drug coverage check to see if your doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers and pharmacies will still be in network for 2023. You have the lowest out-of-pocket costs if you go to providers and pharmacies that are in your plan’s network. If you see an outof-network provider, your plan may not cover any of the cost of your care, leaving you to pay the cost outof-pocket. You should also contact your providers directly to confi rm that they will still be accepting your plan in the coming year. Drugs: If you have prescription drug coverage, look through the plan’s formulary, which is the list of drugs the plan covers. Formulary changes can happen from year to year, so make sure the medications you’re taking will be covered next year, and that they’re not moved to a higher tier which will aff ect your copay. If you see any changes that will increase your costs, you may want to select a diff erent drug plan that covers all of your medications. If the formulary is incomplete, or you do not see your drug(s) on the list, contact the plan directly to learn more. If you have not received an ANOC by the end of September, you should contact your Medicare Advantage Plan or Part D plan to request it. This notice can be very helpful in determining whether you should make any changes to your coverage during the fall open enrollment. Reading your ANOC can also prevent any surprises about your coverage in the new year. Shopping, comparing and enrolling in a new Medicare Advantage or Part D plan during the open enrollment period can easily be done online at Medicare’s Plan Finder Tool at Medicare.gov/ fi nd-a-plan. Or, if you don’t have a computer or Internet access, you can also call Medicare at 800633-4227 and they can help you out over the phone. Your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), which provides free Medicare counseling, is also a great resource to help you make any changes. To fi nd a local SHIP counselor, visit ShipHelp.org or call 877-839-2675. Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. nior ior TESTIMONY | FROM PAGE 1 serting as “fact” that he had solicited and taken “payoff s” and “kickbacks” and committed “extortion” of other public offi cials.” The original complaint, which focused solely on Sept. 8 and Sept. 15, 2021 articles and Facebook postings, has now opened up to include thousands of texts, emails and phone communications as well as going back as far as 2017 when Philbin fi rst purchased the newspaper and hired Resnek as his “publisher”. The complaint also points to the motive behind Philbin and Resnek’s articles; to remove DeMaria from the mayor’s offi ce in order to further Philbin’s business and fi nancial interests in Everett including “contracts denied, favorable treatment to real estate interests they desired, and the right to taxpayer money used to purchase advertising in his newspaper.” According to the complaint, Resnek and the defendants knew that their stories were “fi ction” and “fabrication” after admitting as such in Resnek’s three depositions. The complaint points to Resnek’s admissions under oath of, that he, on behalf of the Leader-Herald Defendants: •“made up” and fabricated defamatory articles about Mr. DeMaria accusing him of criminal conduct knowing that they had no basis in fact and were, indeed, “fiction” and “BS;” • fabricated derogatory quotes about the Mayor which they falsely attributed to individuals who never said these things; • testifi ed falsely, under oath, over and over again about the existence of contemporaneous “notes” that, in fact, never existed at the time the articles about 43 Corey Street were published, but were instead manufactured after this lawsuit was fi led and after the defendants knew they had been requested to turn over notes of any conversations that supported these articles, committing a fraud on this Court, the public and Mr. DeMaria; •then spoliated those manufactured “notes” by repeatedly altering them on multiple occasions after the fact in order to make it appear that they were authentic evidence, thereby committing a further fraud upon the Court; and •attempted to “pressure” an individual whom they knew was suff ering from “dramatic” mental health problems into making statements that they hoped would harm Mr. DeMaria’s reputation. The complaint highlighted Matthew Philbin’s role in the newspaper’s weekly attack on the mayor. “Indeed, Defendant Matthew Philbin not only directed and controlled the newspaper, but these false stories were sent to Philbin-owned businesses to be reviewed, approved, and edited to conform with the Philbins’ interests before they were published.It is, indeed, the Leader Herald Defendants that, as the sworn admissions and documents show, constituted and constitute a corrupt enterprise.” The complaint further states that that the defendants not only committed “a remarkable fraud on this Court and the judicial process, but on the election process itself.” “The admissions on record and contemporaneous communications that this Court ordered the Leader Herald Defendants to produce establish that they, at a minimum, committed a fraud on the people of Everett, Massachusetts, by publishing story after story that they knew were fi ction, fraudulent and fabrications or, as Mr. Resnek actually admitted, “BS,” and that they did so because they regarded Mr. DeMaria, the Mayor of Everett, as unwilling to subsidize the Philbins’ business interests in Everett with taxpayer money, and other forms of favorable treatment at public expense,” according to the complaint. As an example, the attorneys cite Resnek’s admission that they, the Defendants, published defamatory stories in order to retaliate against the Mayor for his unwillingness to pay taxpayer monies to the Philbin insurance company for an insurance contract with the City, and for what they believed to be DeMaria’s unfavorable regulation of rooming houses and other housing units in Everett. During the 2021 election year, just before the primary, when DeMaria was running against Fred Capone and Gurley Adrian, Resnek admitted under oath that the newspaper planned to “drop bombs” on Mayor DeMaria by writing false and damaging articles accusing him of criminal conduct “of which they knew he was innocent,” in order to tilt the election and remove a mayor “that they believed was adverse to their fi nancial interests,” according to the complaint. Resnek also admitted to coordinating with DeMaria’s political adversaries “every day” about his plan to publish damaging articles about the mayor in advance of the primary and to ensure the opponent’s “message” was refl ected in the scurrilous articles. The “Wordsmith of Church St.”, in a further attempt to defame the mayor through his relationship with Boston Globe reporter Andrea Estes, hoped to have Estes pressure Sergio Cornelio, DeMaria’s partner in the Corey St. land deal which Resnek and Philbin tried to establish as corrupt through their articles, into coerce Cornelio into supporting Resnek’s false articles. Estes was told by Resnek to pressure Cornelio as he “was suff ering from severe mental health issues and was therefore susceptible to coercion by them,” according to the complaint. Estes off ered to give Resnek “credit” for helping her publish the articles. On one occasion, Estes asked Resnek for proof of the mayor’s “payoff ” from the Corey St. deal by the Everett Co-operative Bank which Resnek claimed made up a “Pocket LLC” to aid the mayor’s “criminal” activity. Resnek, as his custom, off ered nothing to the Globe reporter despite her press deadline. The complaint continues with numerous examples of the defendants’ longstanding hostility toward DeMaria, from the 1990’s as an Alderman when he butted heads with the Philbins’ over their rooming house issues to when Philbin began publishing the newspaper in 2017. Resnek would sum up his work and relationship with the Leader-Herald when he proclaimed in an email to a colleague; “Each week, 52 times a year, I invent the Leader Herald…the mayor is my enemy…It takes me two days away from important writing every week to create this (expletive).” It’s hard to argue against his proclamation. In another example of the defendants’ reckless and defamatory articles, Resnek publishes in March 24, 2022 claiming the mayor and others wrote racists emails and texts about the Irish, establishing the city as racist on many occasions, without any proof. With the headline, “Irish Humiliated in Racist E-Mail and Text Threads Shared by the Mayor, Others,” Resnek wrote: “The coming to light of anti-Irish expression of hate, Internet messages shared by the holder of the highest offi ce in the city with others… ‘(ExpleTESTIMONY | SEE PAGE 16

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