Warnings about Medicare Advantage fraud are growing - here's how to protect yourself
A new report from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee documents a range of fraudulent and misleading marketing practices used to sell Medicare Advantage plans - and some of them are real eye-openers.
A Medicare Advantage promotional mailer designed to look like a form from the Internal Revenue Service. A “Medicare bus” trundling around Ohio advertising an internet address that takes users to an insurance brokerage website. Insurance agents accosting seniors in grocery store parking lots, or making enrollment pitches to vulnerable seniors who have cognitive impairment.
The committee solicited input from state insurance commissioners and the national network of State Health Insurance Assistance Programs, which assists seniors with Medicare enrollment.
The findings come on the heels of a report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which runs Medicare, that it received 39,617 complaints about the marketing of Medicare Advantage and Part D drug plans in 2021 - a dramatic increase of 155% compared with the number of complaints received in 2020.
The Senate report is especially timely, since it lands in the midst of the annual Medicare open enrollment season. This is the time of year when you can make changes in your health insurance choices - and you also must be prepared for a barrage of advertising and marketing pitches.
During fall enrollment season, remember that Medicare rules do not permit insurance brokers to contact you to pitch plans unless you have given them advance permission to be in touch - for example, if you already do business with an agent or contacted one for information. That prohibition includes phone calls and emails, or approaching you in a public place.
CMS encourages anyone concerned about a specific misleading advertisement to call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) to report the ad. The Federal Trade Commission offers a list of tips for avoiding Medicare fraud.
CMS created this video to help seniors protect themselves.
Learn more in my Reuters column this week.
Join me for an interactive workshop on retirement planning
I’ll be discussing my new book during an interactive, online workshop on January 24th. I hope you’ll join me!
The 90-minute workshop, hosted by Bookends University, will offer practical strategies for improving your retirement prospects, even if your savings are meager and retirement is looming! It will draw from material in Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track.
We’ll walk through core decisions to make now to improve retirement outcomes, including
Timing Your Retirement
Optimizing Social Security
Navigating Medicare
Tapping Home Equity
Building Savings
Financing long-term care needs
Tuition for the event is $45, which includes a copy of Retirement Reboot. Bookends University is sponsored by Bookends & Beginnings, my favorite independent bookstore. You can pick up your copy at the store if you’re local, or have it mailed to you.
What I’m reading
How a spouse in a nursing home raises poverty risk for married couples . . . How the mid-terms impact tax planning . . . Investigating private equity’s stealthy takeover of healthcare . . . Frustrations grow over recall of CPAP devices . . .Why it’s important to have a hobby in retirement . . . Ten global innovations for an aging world.