We examined a claim by President Barack Obama that Medicare benefits would not be cut and found it to be Half True. The impact of health care reform on Medicare recipients has been a matter of considerable debate. The Huffington Post said it has obtained a copy of the mailer and posted it to its Web site. "We also are asking that no other plan sponsors are mailing similar materials while we investigate whether a potential violation has occurred."Īccording to the CMS, Humana's mailing warned beneficiaries that they might lose benefits under health care reform, a claim that Democratic officials dispute. "We are concerned that the materials Humana sent to our beneficiaries may violate Medicare rules by appearing to contain Medicare Advantage and prescription drug benefit information, which must be submitted to CMS for review," said Jonathan Blum, acting director of CMS's Center for Drug and Health Plan Choices. (Part D is Medicare coverage for prescription drugs.) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and is often referred to as CMS, recently announced it was looking into mailings that Humana sent to its Medicare Advantage and Part D patients.
Humana is the second-largest insurance company that handles Medicare Advantage, right after UnitedHealth Group. President Barack Obama and groups like AARP have said it's time to bring the costs of Medicare Advantage in line with the cost of regular Medicare. That has not happened, and Medicare Advantage actually costs the government more. The program was conceived as a cost-containment measure on the theory that competition among private plans would drive down costs. Often called Medicare's HMOs, Advantage is an optional program in which the federal government pays private insurance companies a set rate to treat Medicare beneficiaries.
Humana contracts with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a program called Medicare Advantage. Humana is a different private insurer that takes money from the government to provide an Advantage plan. AARP makes money by licensing its name to a private insurer that offers a Medicare Advantage plan.
We found that AARP and Humana actually have very different roles with Medicare plans. We wanted to investigate whether there were two different standards at work. "Yet the administration's edict prohibiting plans from communicating with their beneficiaries failed to include AARP, which sponsors a Medicare Advantage plan but has been a prime advocate of Democrats' government takeover of health care - quite possibly because AARP has been supporting a health care overhaul from which it stands to gain overall handsomely," the statement said. "This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it was investigating Humana for providing 'misleading' information regarding the administration's proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage policies - and prohibited other Medicare Advantage plans from providing similar information on how Democrat health 'reform' could take away their current coverage," the release said. The House Republican Conference said the government is silencing Humana about reforms that would change Medicare Advantage, while the AARP - a notable reform supporter - gets off scott-free. A controversial mailing from Humana to Medicare recipients has Republicans charging unfair treatment in the way the government handled private insurance companies versus the AARP.
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