Trump administration plugs private Medicare plans in email

WASHINGTON — Older Americans have been flocking to Medicare’s private plans, which promise predictable costs and extra benefits.

But the private Medicare Advantage plans have also been getting an unpublicized boost from the Trump administration, which has in the last few weeks extolled the virtues of the private plans in emails sent to millions of beneficiaries.

Medicare’s annual open enrollment period closes Friday. Administration officials predict almost 37 percent of the 60 million Medicare beneficiaries will be in Medicare Advantage plans next year, up from 28 percent five years ago.

The officials deny they are steering patients to private plans, but the subject lines of recent emails read almost like advertisements. “Get more benefits for your money,” says a message dated Oct. 25. “See if you can save money with Medicare Advantage,” said another sent a week later.

The messages — “paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services” — urge beneficiaries to “check out Medicare Advantage” and point to an online tool, the Medicare plan finder, to compare the different options.

“You may be able to lower your out-of-pocket costs while getting extra benefits, like vision, hearing, dental and prescription coverage,” said an email sent to beneficiaries Wednesday.

“With Medicare Advantage,” says another email, “one plan covers all of your care.”

In small print, the emails say they were “created and distributed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services” to people who “signed up for email updates from the Medicare team.”

Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency was not favoring private plans over the original government-run Medicare program.

“We are not steering any Medicare beneficiary anywhere,” she said.

But Richard S. Foster, who was for many years the nonpartisan chief actuary of the Medicare program, said the emails sounded “more like Medicare Advantage plan advertising than objective information from a public agency.”

“The statements made in the emails are generally accurate, but they are one-sided,” Foster said. “The advantages of MA plans are emphasized, while the disadvantages are not mentioned.”

For example, he said, private plans generally require beneficiaries to use a defined network of health care providers or pay more for care outside the network. By contrast, in traditional Medicare, beneficiaries can go to any doctor who accepts Medicare, as most doctors do.

Jo Murphy, who has counseled thousands of Medicare beneficiaries as the director of Michigan’s Health Insurance Assistance Program, said: “It seems that there are a whole lot of promotional emails coming from the federal government. There does seem to be encouragement to go to Medicare Advantage, part of a trend favoring private companies over traditional Medicare, for whatever reason.”

Federal spending on Medicare Advantage will nearly triple in the coming decade, to $584 billion in 2028, from $210 billion this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Insurance executives and investors are also bullish on the outlook for the private Medicare plans, offered by companies such as United-Health and Humana, which do extensive marketing of their own at this time of year.

When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it helped offset the cost by cutting payments to Medicare Advantage plans. The CBO and other experts predicted enrollment in the plans would decline. Instead, it has surged to more than 20 million today, from 11 million in 2010.

Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut recently sent a letter to the administration expressing concern that officials were “inappropriately working to steer Medicare beneficiaries to Medicare Advantage plans.” The agency has an obligation to “provide beneficiaries with accurate information from a neutral, balanced perspective,” said the letter, signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Christopher S. Murphy and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, among others.

Even without encouragement from the government, Medicare beneficiaries might be gravitating to private plans.

Many people have become accustomed to managed care plans through their employment. When they reach age 65, they are comfortable opting for a private plan — in some cases, a Medicare Advantage plan offered by the same company that provided their employer-based coverage.

“It seems that there are a whole lot of promotional emails coming from the federal government. –JO MURPH DIRECTOR OF MICHIGAN HEALTH INSURANCE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM