A Good Start

It looks like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are looking at rolling back subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans.

This is a good thing,  Medicare Advantage increases costs and engages in all the dirty tricks that private insurers use to screw their customers, because they they are private insurers.

This has always been the proverbial camel's nose under the tent, an attempt to privatize Medicare gradually:

It appears HHS and CMS are taking action with Medicare Advantage plans and their payments to brokers selling Advantage plans. They allowed Kaiser Family Foundation healthcare to republish a Modern Healthcare article. I am lucky enough to have access to and republished at Angry Bear.

According to the article, “insurers increasingly not only pay commissions to brokers and agents but also contract with field marketing organizations that pay the same marketers.” A double dipping of fees. CMS’s rule rectifies the issue by establishing a standardized compensation limiting whether a field operation is involved or not.

Medicare Advantage has been overpaying insurance companies offering the plans for years now. Maggie Magar, Kip Sullivan, Merrill Goozner, myself, and others have been pointing out the over payments to MA for their insurance plans.

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Citing public complaints, CMS concluded the Medicare Advantage and Part D insurers (especially the big corporation) were boosting compensation to marketers in ways that impedes competition and lures beneficiaries toward plans paying brokers more but are not necessarily most suited to their customers.

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“CMS is taking bold action to expand enrollee protections and taking unprecedented steps to address predatory marketing of the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs.”

Prior to this regulation, which takes effect for the 2025 plan year, CMS already capped compensation for third-party marketers selling Medicare policies. For example, brokers and agents may receive up to $611 for new Medicare Advantage enrollments and up to $306 for renewals during the 2024 plan year. 

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According to a HHS spokesperson, the Health and Human Services Department “issued a final rule to stop certain companies from circumventing the agency’s compensation limits in ways that funnel beneficiaries into higher-paying plans instead of the ones that are best for each enrollee. While we can’t comment on any ongoing lawsuits, HHS believes that compensation should be structured to create incentives for agents and brokers to enroll individuals in the plan that is intended to best meet their healthcare needs, as the law requires.”

Rather unsurprisingly, the Medicare Advantage goniffs are suing to keep their ill gotten gains.

F%$# them.