Medicare Truth

On July 15, Congress voted to override President George W. Bush's veto of H.R. 6331, the "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008."

The measure eliminates pending Medicare payment rate cuts for doctors – and pays for those cuts primarily through changes to the Medicare Advantage program. The changes include a slight reduction of payments to plans and require most MA plans to have provider networks in 2011.

How will this change affect Medicare Plan Members? Now that the bill has become law, many Medicare Advantage members are concerned. Although it's still too early to say exactly how this legislation may impact Medicare Advantage Plan Members coverage:

• No changes are being made at this time. Plan members current coverage remains the same.
• In the future and in some areas of the country, this legislation will likely shift some of the healthcare cost burden from the federal government onto seniors and disabled individuals.

How will this legislation impact agents?

H.R. 6331 contains new marketing rules for Medicare Advantage and PDP plans. It also contains several changes that affect Medicare Supplement (Medigap) plans. Most notably, it requires MA plans to establish new sales and marketing practices starting with the 2009 plan year.

Those standards are will include more stringent standards in areas like cold-calling, cross selling of non-health related products, consumer disclosures, and agent training and certification.

So while no one can be sure of how this will affect everyone involved with Medicare Advantage plans, we can be sure that the companies that educate their members early will be ahead of the game.