Avoid Misleading TV Ads From Medicare Advantage Plan Brokers—Medicare and Congress Are Scrutinizing Them
Cautions Related to Medicare Advantage Plans
November 21, 2022
- Summary: Medicare and Congress Are Looking Into Misleading TV Ads For Medicare Advantage Plans
- Reading time: 2–3 minutes.
Medicare and the US Senate are investigating Medicare Advantage Plan Broker pitches on TV. Those ads feature celebrities telling you to get all the benefits you’re entitled to. In addition, those deceptive ads encourage calling a phone number where agents use bait-and-switch and other predatory and misleading tactics to get people to sign up. Hopefully, these ads will soon be better regulated.
More and more people are enrolling in Medicare Advantage plans without knowing that their preferred doctors and hospitals are out-of-network for their plan. As a result, they may be stuck with medical bills not covered by their insurance if treated at an out-of-network hospital or by an out-of-network doctor.
Only Original Medicare will allow seeing any doctor or going to any hospital that accepts Medicare. And a supplemental plan may be necessary to cover the 20% co-pays that Original Medicare doesn’t cover.
Mayo Clinic recently sent letters to patients in Florida and Arizona warning that it will no longer take most Medicare Advantage Plans and suggesting patients enroll in Original Medicare.
Please do your homework so you can choose wisely during Medicare Open Enrollment, which ends on December 7. You can find and compare plans using Medicare’s Plan Finder Tool.
Please ensure the tool you use is located at Medicare.gov since Google features third-party brokers’ ads that lure people to untrustworthy sites.
The articles below from doctor publications share more details about the Medicare and Senate investigations of deceptive Medicare Advantage broker ads.
- Mayo Warns It Won’t Take Most Medicare Advantage Plans: Letters to Florida, Arizona patients suggest they enroll in original Medicare with a supplement
- CMS Puts the Kibosh on Misleading Medicare Advantage Sales Pitches: “Secret shoppers” found that 80% of agent calls with clients were inaccurate or insufficient
- CMS to restrict Medicare Advantage TV ads, scrutinize brokers and agents amid high complaints
- Senate Report Decries Medicare Advantage Plan Marketing Deception: Frustrated, confused, embarrassed enrollees often delay care after being “scammed,” report notes