Month: December 2021

Sad News

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Greta Perlee, retired elementary and middle school teacher, passed away on December 22 at the age of 94 with family at her side. She taught in the Northport-East Northport School District for twenty two years at  Norwood Ave, Middleville Jr. High and the High school. Greta was pre-deceased by her husband Harold and is survived by six children and their partners; Bill and Lorah, Bruce and Jeannette, Alison and Pete, Alisa and Jim, Brooks and Jane, and Dana and Dennis and twelve grandchildren.

Greta went back to college as a mother of six to become a teacher, and taught in the Northport-East Northport School District for twenty two years. Upon retirement Greta continued to be active in the community – playing golf, attending events at the library, and socializing with her retired teacher friends. She loved reading, traveling with her husband and long-time friends, golf, word games (and winning), chocolate, white wine, and spending time with her family.

There will be a celebration of Greta’s life at a later date. Her family ask that donations honoring Greta be made in memory of her husband, Harold, to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org

R-UTN members with memories of Greta they wish to share can email [email protected]. Please keep your commemorative brief and include your name and school.

Holiday Greetings

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Dear Colleagues,

Happy Holidays! Enjoy and celebrate! We made it through a very difficult year! Take heart and endure. We look forward to 2022 with hope and anticipation, and offer best wishes to you and your families for a healthy and prosperous New Year. We look forward to a year of more opportunities to gather, chat, laugh and share good memories of our years together in the Northport-East Northport School District. Oh…the stories we can tell, and enjoy!

Let us know what you look forward to in this New Year. Send a brief message to our webpage to share your hopes, expectations and plans for 2022. We want to hear from you and stay connected. Email your messages to [email protected].

Medicare Premiums to Rise in 2022

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Medicare premiums are going up in 2022. The following reprint from the newsletter of the RC 43 – Teacher Retirees in Florida explains why.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said on November 12, 2021 that the standard monthly Part B premium for next year will be $170.10. That’s an increase of 14.5%, or $21.60, from 2021. The annual Part B deductible will be $233, an increase of $30 from 2021.

The increases were due in part to rising health care costs and higher utilization of health care services, Medicare said. Medicare beneficiaries potentially being prescribed the Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, which was approved by he Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, was also to blame, Medicare said. Aduhelm’s price tag – $56,000 per person each year – has been criticized and has raised questions about the strain it would put on Medicare’s finances.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated in June that if just a quarter of the 2 million beneficiaries who were prescribed an Alzheimer’s treatment under Part D in 2017 took Aduhelm, it would cost Medicare $29 billion in one year. To put that into perspective, Medicare spent $37 billion on all Part B drugs in 2019, KFF said.

Since Aduhelm must be administered by a doctor, it is covered under Part B and not under a prescription drug plan. Medicare started a National Coverage Determination in July to determine whether and how the agency would cover the treatment and other similar Alzheimer’s drugs.

“While the outcome of the coverage determination is unknown, our projection in no way implies what the coverage determination will be, however, we must plan for the possibility of coverage for this high cost Alzheimer’s drug which could, if covered, result in significantly higher expenditures for the Medicare program,”