Marcie Collins retired in 2014 as a buyer/analyst with Tampa Electric’s Purchasing & Inventory Management Department. She’s been a TEEBA member for nearly 40 years.
“A lot of people don’t know about TEEBA, but I think that’s changing. I came to know about TEEBA because of my father, who also worked for Tampa Electric and was a TEEBA member. When my dad died suddenly, his finances automatically closed, putting my family in a tight spot. But TEEBA called my mom and helped her pay for various medical issues, and that made a big impression on me.
“For me personally, TEEBA helped when doctors recently overcharged me. I missed that when it happened, but TEEBA caught it and let me know about it. I went back and got a credit for the amount I had overpaid. I was grateful to get TEEBA’s help.
“TEEBA makes it easy; I just fill out the appropriate forms and send them in. If you can’t claim something, they let you know – it’s all pretty cut and dried. They’re very responsive; they get back to you quickly. You couldn’t ask for a better organization.”
Gary Bisesto is a coordinator of Plant Outages with Big Bend Power Station.
“It’s pretty simple case in my case. As a young guy, I joined TEEBA years ago, paid and paid, never collected, didn’t need to collect, which is a good thing; I guess when you’re young you pay for the old that have medical problems. Then I became older and had some serious medical problems, and all of a sudden I needed to collect.
“Right before I had the problems, I was thinking about dropping out of TEEBA because I’d never really used it except for maybe one doctor’s visit per year. But I’m so glad I stayed in.
“Eva Collet, who runs TEEBA – she’s just awesome, she responds instantly; she used to work for TECO herself. She recommended that I just hang in there and stay in the program. It wasn’t but a few months later that I had some very large bills and collected all of my pay from them, so it was a great thing that I stayed in.
“The dues aren’t much; at about $120 a year, there’s no cheaper insurance than that. I probably collected the max this year and last year or pretty close; $600, or something like that, pays for a lot. TEEBA is definitely a great program for the money that you put into it. Plus it has a life insurance policy hooked up to it too that pays within 24 hours or so if you need some money. I recommend TEEBA to everybody.”