Medicare is complex to understand—and it may not cover all of your medical expenses in retirement. Wespath partners with Willis Towers Watson’s Via Benefits™ for Medicare supplemental health coverage. The Via Benefits program helps eligible retirees, spouses and certain disabled participants select and pay for Medicare supplemental health coverage. As of 2021, 28 annual conferences and 3 UMC employer groups sponsor Via Benefits for over 9,000 Medicare eligible retirees and spouses.

Flexibility

The Via Benefits program allows flexibility for retirees to customize their Medicare supplemental coverage. Via Benefits makes available Medicare supplemental plans from more than 90 health insurers (carriers) nationwide. Current UMC retirees and their spouses have selected over 1,000 different plans that meet their individual needs.

Cost Savings

The program offers an opportunity for cost savings to participants and plan sponsors, as well as potentially greater sustainability of retiree medical benefits. Via Benefits also provides administration for tax-advantaged Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) from which retirees can pay their Medicare supplement premiums.

Guidance and Support

Via Benefits licensed benefit advisers guide participants through individualized plan selection and enrollment, and trained Via Benefits agents provide ongoing support with related questions after enrollment.

Learn more at Via Benefits 

Supplemental Health Coverage 

Have Questions? 

Contact Via Benefits at 1-866-249-7785 or the Wespath Health Team at 1-800-851-2201 (option 2). 

Helpful Hints to ease your Via Benefits experience:

• Avoid Monday's.  Monday is the busiest day, call volumes decrease as the week goes on.
• Monday after Thanksgiving is historically our busiest day of the season, avoid this day if possible.
• Callers with appointments are first priority, You are encouraged to make an appointment.
• If you’re scheduling an appointment online, try checking mid-morning as new appointments are added regularly. If no appointments are available, expand the date range to open up additional timeslots.
• Callers who have selected call me back (CMB) are prioritized over callers who do not have an appointment or who have not selected CMB. You are encouraged to either make an appointment or choose CMB (call me back).

• If calling for spouse and participant, caller needs to authenticate using the individual’s information for whom the appointment was scheduled. For example, if the appointment was scheduled using the participant’s information, then the participant’s information must be used to authenticate, not the spouse’s.
• Callers who do not authenticate through the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) when calling in cannot be identified as Greater NJ retirees and unfortunately will not be prioritized. You will be routed through the general call queue, resulting in significantly longer hold times.