CMS & Misleading Private Medicare Plan Claims

According to The Medicare Rights Center, the Medicare.gov ‘Plan Finder’ tool invariably makes Original Medicare look like the much more expensive option compared to Medicare private health plans. That is because there is no mechanism for comparing the combined costs of a Medigap supplemental policy and a stand-alone drug plan with the cost of a Medicare Advantage plan with drug coverage. Inexplicably, the plan finder also calculates that people will spend $2000 more on health services under Original Medicare than under Medicare private health plans, like WellCare Melody, that have exactly the same cost-sharing structure as Original Medicare.

Unfortunately, these are not the only examples of information coming from CMS that paints the privatized Part D drug benefit and Medicare private health plans in the best light, even if they wind up confusing consumers. Even as premiums for most people enrolled in prescription drug plans are rising sharply in 2009, CMS put out a press release boasting that 97 percent would have “access” to a prescription drug or Medicare private health plan with the same, or lower, premium. That may be true, but it neglects to mention that people may have to change plans, and may also need to change doctors if the only cheaper plan for drug coverage is an HMO.

-From: “Hard Times”, Asclepios, Your Weekly Medicare Consumer Advocacy Update: October 2, 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 40.

 

10/08