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GAO REPORT DETAILS MARKETING ABUSES IN MEDICARE ADVANTAGE
Sunday, January 31, 2010 4:35 PM
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NEWS – CONGRESSMAN PETE STARK
239 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5065
www.stark.house.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 18, 2010
CONTACT: Brian Cook, (202) 225-3202
GAO REPORT DETAILS MARKETING ABUSES IN MEDICARE ADVANTAGE
Full Extent of Insurers' Misbehavior is Unknown Because of Limited Data
WASHINGTON – Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, today commented on a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on marketing abuses by Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. The report found that 73 MA organizations representing 7.4 million MA beneficiaries – about 71 percent of all MA beneficiaries – were penalized for marketing abuses through February 2009. These abuses include activities to mislead, confuse, or misrepresent the MA plan to beneficiaries.
"This report reaffirms that private insurance companies won't behave without the government holding them accountable," Rep. Stark said. "The Obama Administration is making improvements on the dismal oversight record of the Bush Administration, and this report shows that more can be done."
Rep. Stark continued: "The health reform legislation that passed the House, H.R. 3962, helps combat these abuses by allowing states to enforce marketing rules and expanding the definition of marketing violations."
This report follows up on hearings by the Ways and Means Committee in 2007 and 2008 where Medicare beneficiaries and their advocates testified about marketing abuses. Witnesses testified that they were given misleading information or enrolled in MA plans without their knowledge, and later found that these plans did not meet their health care needs.
The only data gathered by CMS were from beneficiaries who proactively told CMS about what they believed were marketing abuses; enrollees may disenroll from MA plans during open enrollment without notifying CMS of a marketing abuse. CMS officials have said that they plan to reinstitute a survey on reasons for beneficiary disenrollment in order to expose more marketing abuses and accurately track victims of marketing abuse.
To read the report, please visit:http://www.stark.house.gov/images/stories/111/press/stark_ma_gaoreport.pdf |
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