Now Playing: "... insurance companies are using "improper hard-sell tactics,"
Topic: Health & Science
I wrote about this a few years ago on D aily Kos shortly after passage of the Medicare Bill in the middle of the night when Republicans & Associates approved corporate pillaging of the Medicare System. The article was entitled Why Your Medicare D. Is So Dang Dumb.
Times: Private Medicare plans use 'improper tactics'
Published: Sunday May 6, 2007
The New York TImes via rawstory.com
According to a story in tomorrow's New York Times (reg. req.), officials and consumer advocates are concerned that insurance companies are using "improper hard-sell tactics," such as trips to Las Vegas, to sign up Medicare recipients in private health care plans known as Medicare Advantage plans.
Advocates of the popular plans say they help coordinate care and can offer extra benefits, such as discounts on eyeglasses and dental care. However, in many cases they are more expensive for both patients and the federal government, and they have also found to be subject to fraud and abuse.
Excerpts:
In Mississippi, George R. Dale, the state insurance commissioner, said, "Abusive Medicare insurance sales practices are spreading rapidly throughout the state." State Sen. Terry C. Burton, a Republican, said, "My office is receiving calls daily from seniors who have been victims of unscrupulous salespeople."..... These "private fee-for-service plans" allow patients to go to any doctor or hospital that will provide care on terms set by the insurer. But some patients have found that they have less access to care, because their doctors refuse to take patients in private fee-for-service plans. Moreover, those plans may be more expensive than traditional Medicare for some patients, because the co-payments for some services may be higher. And economists say that the cost to the government is also higher because, in many counties, Medicare pays private plans more than the cost of traditional Medicare...... In Georgia, two insurance agents were arrested last month and accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare beneficiaries. "The agents signed up unwilling consumers and even deceased individuals for private Medicare plans," said John W. Oxendine, the Georgia insurance commissioner. "This appears to be a national problem, based on my conversations with insurance officials around the country."
The full story can be read with a New York Times registration at this link.
