Orlando Health partners with eHealth for Medicare enrollment

For the first time during the Medicare open enrollment period, Orlando Health has partnered with the online insurance brokerage company eHealth to let consumers compare and shop for Medicare Advantage plans that are accepted by the health system.

Orlando Health is the first in Florida to create this shopping experience for consumers, but a growing number of health systems are delving into similar creative solutions to attract and keep the growing aging population within their network.

“We've always listed the plans [in our network]. But this takes this to another level. … Now we're saying go price it out,” said Mike Stubee, COO of managed care revenue management administration at Orlando Health.

EHealth is in its second year of co-branding with health systems its Medicare Advantage site, medicare.com -- not to be confused with the government's medicare.gov — and the numbers are growing.

The company partnered with eight health systems last year and has added more than 20 this year.

“If you have a preference for a health-care system, this works well,” said Ken Peach, executive director of Health Council of East Central Florida. “There are two things that need to be in place for individuals to become patient at a hospital: a physician that's on the medical staff and a health insurance in which that hospital participates in.”

But there’s a caveat: not all available plans are listed on the co-branded site. Some are not listed because they don’t use insurance brokerage firms to sell their product. Others aren’t listed because they’re not in Orlando Health’s network.

A new arrival, Devoted Health, is one of the plans that’s in Orlando Health’s network but is not listed on its co-branded site, because it currently doesn’t work with the brokerage firm. Florida Blue, one of the largest insurers in Florida, also isn’t listed on the site although it’s in Orlando Health’s network.

Officials at Florida Blue said they don’t currently have a relationship with eHealth.

“We encourage those with questions about their Medicare Advantage plan options to consider all available plans,” said Christie Hyde DeNave, a spokeswoman for Florida Blue, in an email.

Any entity that provides information about Medicare plans and coverage options should provide information about all available options, unless it clearly discloses that it is only showing some of the available options and why only those options are offered, said Judy Stein, executive director of Center for Medicare Advocacy, in an email.

EHealth officials said they fully comply with regulatory guidelines. That information is “visible as people begin to shop,” said Lisa Steinhart-Zamosky, a spokeswoman for eHealth, in an email.

Consumers who want to see all the available options should visit medicare.gov or use Medicare’s Plan Finder at medicare.gov/find-a-plan.

Medicare Advantage enrollment is expected to reach an all-time high in 2019. The federal government is projecting that one-third of Medicare beneficiaries — almost 23 million in-