WASHINGTON BUREAU — Federal regulators responded to concerns about allegations of inappropriate marketing practices at 73 Medicare Advantage plan sponsors during a 4-year period that ended in early 2009, according to U.S. Government Accountability Office officials.
The enforcement actions affected more than a third of the Medicare Advantage plan sponsors, GAO officials write in a new report.
In some cases, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that oversees the Medicare Advantage program, simply sent warning letters or initial notices of noncompliance. In other cases, CMS imposed fines or marketing suspensions.
The GAO found little information about the number of enrollees affected by the alleged cases of inappropriate marketing: CMS once conducted a survey that collected information on reasons for Medicare plan disenrollment, but CMS dropped the survey in 2005.
If CMS were still conducting the survey, the survey could have provided important information about whether there is a link between inappropriate marketing and disenrollment, GAO officials write. CMS officials say they plan to bring back the disenrollment survey this summer.
The GAO found evidence that inappropriate marketing caused lingering problems for some enrollees.
CMS provided special plan switching periods for some enrollees, so that the enrollees would not have to wait for the regular, twice-yearly open-enrollment periods. But some enrollees still ran into financial problems, or access-to-care problems, as a result of inappropriate marketing, GAO officials write.
Some enrollees suffered financial hardships when they dropped out of Medicare Advantage plans but the plans continued to withhold premiums from their Social Security benefits, officials write.
