https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/19/ibm_sales_veteran_healthcare_lawsuit/ # # Sign in / up The Register(r) -- Biting the hand that feeds IT # # # Topics Security Security All SecurityCyber-crimePatchesResearchCSO (X) Off-Prem Off-Prem All Off-PremEdge + IoTChannelPaaS + IaaSSaaS (X) On-Prem On-Prem All On-PremSystemsStorageNetworksHPCPersonal TechCxOPublic Sector (X) Software Software All SoftwareAI + MLApplicationsDatabasesDevOpsOSesVirtualization (X) Offbeat Offbeat All OffbeatDebatesColumnistsScienceGeek's GuideBOFHLegalBootnotesSite NewsAbout Us (X) Special Features Special Features All Special Features Cloud Infrastructure Week Cybersecurity Month Blackhat and DEF CON Sysadmin Month The Reg in Space Emerging Clean Energy Tech Week Spotlight on RSA Energy Efficient Datacenters Vendor Voice Vendor Voice Vendor Voice All Vendor VoiceAmazon Web Services (AWS) Business TransformationDDN Google Cloud Data TransformationGoogle Cloud InfrastructureGoogle WorkspaceHewlett Packard Enterprise: AI & ML solutionsHewlett Packard Enterprise: Edge-to-Cloud PlatformIntel vProVMware (X) Resources Resources Whitepapers Webinars & Events Newsletters [front] On-Prem 4 comment bubble on white Ex-IBM sales veteran sues for access to health benefits 4 comment bubble on white Complaint alleges age discrimination harms certain retirees icon Thomas Claburn Sun 19 Nov 2023 // 15:56 UTC # A former IBM enterprise salesperson has sued the mainframe titan claiming its recent healthcare benefit changes represents age discrimination. On Thursday, George Adomavicius, who worked for IBM for 42 years before retiring in October 2020, filed a pro se lawsuit - meaning he's representing himself in court - against the IT goliath. Adomavicius told The Register the reason he chose to sue on his own was, "To correct a wrong." The alleged wrong, in this instance, is the employee benefits transition that IBM announced last September. The corporation sold off pension obligations to Prudential and MetLife, adjusted its 401 (k) plan, and shifted medical coverage for Medicare-eligible IBM retirees to a new IBM-sponsored Medicare Advantage program run by UnitedHealthcare, as of January 1 this year. [front] UnitedHealthcare, coincidentally, was just sued for using an allegedly faulty AI algorithm that limited post-acute care among elderly Medicare Advantage patients. [front] [front] As The Register previously reported, IBM's health benefits transition angered some retirees because the American giant withheld Health Reimbursement Arrangement/Account (HRA) subsidies - credited to retirees during their time at the company - from anyone who refused to select one of the two new Medicare Advantage plans and preferred to retain their prior policy. One of those individuals, Steve Bergeron, another former IBM employee, started a petition to convince Big Blue to let retirees choose their healthcare plans without forcing the issue by denying HRA funds. He managed to collect more than 3,500 signatures though ultimately gave up. [front] "We struggled to find an attorney who found any grounds to sue IBM," Bergeron told The Register in a phone interview. The problem, he said, was that IBM's benefits documentation didn't actually appear to promise anything. * IBM pauses advertising on X after ads show up next to antisemitic content * Amazon to staff: Come into the office - it'd be a shame if something happened to your promotion * IBM to scrap 401(k) matching, offer something else instead * Former IBM Canada worker wins six-figure payout for wrongful dismissal Medicare is a government-run healthcare program in the US for people of age 65 and older, with some exceptions. Medicare Advantage is a privately-run version of Medicare, reimbursed by the government. In 2020, according to the Congressional Research Service, Medicare was estimated to cover about 63 million persons - 54 million older members and nine million disabled. About half of those are said to be in Medicare Advantage plans. According to an April 2022 report [PDF] from the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services, private Medicare Advantage programs deny 13 percent of service authorization requests that would have been approved by the government-run Medicare. In other words, those on Medicare Advantage are likely to have to pay more of their healthcare expenses from their own pocket. Adomavicius makes this argument in his complaint: [front] "IBM's [Summary Plan Description] causes specific identifiable select groups of Medicare-age retirees to suffer financial loss (access to HRA and higher overall healthcare costs), emotional and mental stress, and undue duress." And he notes that IBM stands to benefit financially from withheld HRA subsidies when retirees who refused one of the new Medicare Advantage plans pass away. Adomavicius said he tried to resolve the situation with IBM but after six months of waiting received a letter that said the company's healthcare terms were final, but mentioned that he could still sue to challenge the decision. Time to take it care of personally Hiring a lawyer wasn't an option, he explained, because it would have cost about $20,000 to hire one, which is more than the amount of benefits at issue. But after filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and receiving a letter acknowledging his right to sue, he decided to represent himself, at the cost of about $400, despite the long odds and challenge of pro se litigation. "I'm retired and I do have the time and I can't afford, you know, to retain a lawyer to do it," he said. "I just want a cooperative judge who says, 'you know, I think he did get kind of treated unfairly.' Is the discrimination charge stretching it? I don't think so, because the criteria for what I understand to be discrimination are: you can identify a unique group, you can identify the intention, and you can identify that there's a negative result of that intention." Specifically he argues that IBM's own literature divides retirees up into different segments in a way that discriminates on the basis of age. "All they have to do is wait out until I die and they save that money," he said. "My $20,000 [in benefits] is a drop in the bucket. But if there's 3,000 like me, all of a sudden you're in the tens of millions of dollars. That is what drives IBM. What's the motive? Money. Very simple. It's just money." All they have to do is wait out until I die and they save that money ... What's the motive? Money. Very simple. It's just money Bill Kadereit, president of the National Retiree Legislative Network, told The Register that his organization has been involved in a similar health benefits transition with the Tennessee Valley Authority. After trying to convince the State of Tennessee and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers Medicare, to intervene, he said the plan is to seek a statutory remedy or pursuing a class action lawsuit. Kadereit said Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans typically pay only a portion of healthcare costs, about 80 percent. As a result, many people have private supplemental policies like Medigap, employer-sponsored retiree plans, or Medicaid to make up the difference. But with Medicare Advantage, "once you're in a Medicare Advantage plan for more than 12 months, you cannot then buy a Medigap plan unless you meet insurance requirements," he claimed. So if you have a preexisting condition, they can deny you coverage and the retiree then has to pay that 20 percent. Kadereit argues this state of affairs is being allowed to happen by Congress to avoid tough decisions about how to deal with spiraling healthcare costs. And business accounts departments like it because there's profit to be made. "What Congress was trying to do is privatize Medicare. And the way they do that is to subsidize the insurance companies to put them in a market advantage, thus cannibalizing their own plan Medicare," he opined. "And now Medicare Advantage plans have a 54 percent market share and their incurred cost per enrollee is nine percent higher than the old fee for service costs. So what Congress is doing is avoiding having to talk about taxes because it affects electability." IBM did not respond to a request for comment. (r) Get our Tech Resources # Share More about * Employment * Enterprise * IBM More like these x More about * Employment * Enterprise * IBM * Law Narrower topics * AIX * Antitrust * Cross-border data flow * Employment Tribunal * Freelancing * IBM Power * IBM Watson * IBM Z * i OS * Job cuts * Layoff * OS/2 * Privacy Shield * Rimini Street * Trade Union * Umbrella Firm * Working from Home More about # Share 4 comment bubble on white COMMENTS More about * Employment * Enterprise * IBM More like these x More about * Employment * Enterprise * IBM * Law Narrower topics * AIX * Antitrust * Cross-border data flow * Employment Tribunal * Freelancing * IBM Power * IBM Watson * IBM Z * i OS * Job cuts * Layoff * OS/2 * Privacy Shield * Rimini Street * Trade Union * Umbrella Firm * Working from Home TIP US OFF Send us news --------------------------------------------------------------------- Other stories you might like HP sued over use of forfeited 401(k) retirement contributions If IT giant loses this lawsuit, it might just upset every plan in America On-Prem16 Nov 2023 | 42 Child psychiatrist jailed after making pornographic AI deep-fakes of kids Perp said to have secretly recorded patients - and digitally undressed them using web neural networks AI + ML10 Nov 2023 | 54 Former IBM Canada worker wins six-figure payout for wrongful dismissal Worked 38 years and was stiffed at the end, tells El Reg age was a probably factor On-Prem25 Oct 2023 | 40 Putting AI challenges in perspective with partnerships How organizations en route to AI sufficiency can ease their journey by working with tech providers like HPE Sponsored Feature [front] WeBroke WeWork, WePromise WeFix it: How subleasing giant hopes to survive bankruptcy Coworking gambit divided office space - and got conquered On-Prem7 Nov 2023 | 27 IBM outlines Asian growth ambitions with acquisition of Indonesian ERP consultancy SAP and Oracle services provider Equine Global becomes part of Big Blue Software1 Nov 2023 | 2 Date night from hell looms for Apple as Netherlands says: 'It's not me, it's you' Watchdog reportedly well and truly out of love with App Store concessions and fee cuts Personal Tech1 Nov 2023 | 4 Unit4 ditching on-prem in favor of SaaS come 2025 Exclusive Clients have a little over a year to get their affairs in order Databases31 Oct 2023 | 12 Now Russians accused of pwning JFK taxi system to sell top spots to cabbies Big Apple unlikely to get a bite out of them at this rate, though Cyber-crime31 Oct 2023 | 6 13-year Google privacy settlement pays litigants the equivalent of a Big Mac meal Chocolate Factory agrees $23m guilt-free settlement Legal25 Oct 2023 | 14 HPE starts Hybrid Cloud push, will herd users into GreenLake subs service Unit aims to 'take share in storage, scale private cloud, and expand into infrastructure software' On-Prem25 Oct 2023 | IBM flags up NorthPole chip to scale AI - though it's still far from shipping Paper describes work in massively parallel, interconnected system - with limits to data in on-chip memory Systems23 Oct 2023 | 3 The Register icon Biting the hand that feeds IT About Us* * Contact us * Advertise with us * Who we are Our Websites* * The Next Platform * DevClass * Blocks and Files Your Privacy* * Cookies Policy * Privacy Policy * T's & C's * Do not sell my personal information Situation Publishing Copyright. All rights reserved (c) 1998-2023 no-js