Alert Medicare ads

[barkley]

@tvguy Thank you for the easy explanation. For those of you of age, it sure must be nice not only getting the social security raise but also the decrease in medicare. While I'm assuming the social security raise isn't keeping up with inflation at least the raise isn't taken up by the medicare premium increasing.

it will be nice for some but unfortunately unless the powers that be do some adjustments to the income eligibility criteria for several social services programs (medicaid, snap, housing and utility assistance...) that raise will result in many seniors and disabled individuals ending up with a NET LOSS and in a far more dire financial state. the social security administration claims the average benefit will go up by $140 per month but if that bump creates ineligibility to the program that helps low income by paying the medicare premium of $164.90 per month that's a $24.90 net loss, if it makes a person ineligible to snap it can be a couple hundred more per month lost, if they lose housing or utility subsidies

 

[YoYoAurora]

While the type of ads the OP is describing are not funded by Medicare, it's not accurate that Medicare has nothing to with any Medicare Advantage plan. Medicare Advantage plans actually have an application process with the federal government and have to meet certain requirements in order to contract with Medicare as a Medicare Advantage plan including covering all benefits that are covered under Medicare Parts A and B and must meet certain network requirements, etc. They are regulated by Medicare.

I can confirm this. Legitimate Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage plans are under the oversight of Medicare. The insurance carriers must contract with Medicare prior to offering any Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan.

I worked for a Medicare Advantage plan a few years ago. We were contracted with and worked very closely with Medicare. We were required to undergo regular audits and compliance verifications by Medicare. Medicare oversees the Medicare Advantage plans and is very involved with the companies who administer them.

Go through a licensed insurance agent for any Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage plan, unless it is offered through your employer (for Medicare eligible spouses) or former employer (for retirees).

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I work for an insurance company that offers medicare advantage plans and i talk to people every day that get tricked into enrolling with these predatory companies. You can always call 1800medicare to verify your enrollment or pending enrollment. You can also report fraud to 1800medicare and you definitely should report!!!

Don't sign up with Wellcare, they have terrible customer service, it is literal hell to call them. And if foreign call centers bother you don't go with United Healthcare either. I think pretty much all the nationwide medicare advantage companies have foreign call centers but I have had particularly bad customer service with United Healthcare as well. Called yesterday with someone and was on the phone over an hour just changing an address and ordering new ID card from them. Lol, at least I got paid to sit there for an hour but the poor person I was calling with had to waste her time.

 

[georgina]

I work for an insurance company that offers medicare advantage plans and i talk to people every day that get tricked into enrolling with these predatory companies. You can always call 1800medicare to verify your enrollment or pending enrollment. You can also report fraud to 1800medicare and you definitely should report!!!

Don't sign up with Wellcare, they have terrible customer service, it is literal hell to call them. And if foreign call centers bother you don't go with United Healthcare either. I think pretty much all the nationwide medicare advantage companies have foreign call centers but I have had particularly bad customer service with United Healthcare as well. Called yesterday with someone and was on the phone over an hour just changing an address and ordering new ID card from them. Lol, at least I got paid to sit there for an hour but the poor person I was calling with had to waste her time.

Interesting. My DH has had a United Healthcare supplement policy for 3 years now with no real issues other than he can't get them to stop sending paper statements (electronic would be better) and he has a Wellcare part D drug plan but I don't think has ever needed customer service. His former company contracts with VIA benefits and he has to make changes through them to get his monthly stipend from the company (they give him $125/month toward his supplement).

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Interesting. My DH has had a United Healthcare supplement policy for 3 years now with no real issues other than he can't get them to stop sending paper statements (electronic would be better) and he has a Wellcare part D drug plan but I don't think has ever needed customer service. His former company contracts with VIA benefits and he has to make changes through them to get his monthly stipend from the company (they give him $125/month toward his supplement).

Hopefully you never need customer service. The issue with United Healthcare on my recent call was language, the rep couldn't understand us and he spoke with a thick accent himself. He couldn't understand American spellings either, we kept having to spell everything in the address multiple times and the address was place names that any American would not have an issue with spelling, I'm not going to list them here because giving specifics could violate Hipaa. It was so frustrating though! I understand it's cheaper for companies to put their call centers outside the US but it can make for really awful customer service experiences for people. In my job, when I have to reach out to these other medicare companies with people it's usually because they have well and truly screwed up their medicare and I have to help them get it straightened out so it's not usually simple stuff. But I really thought changing an address and ordering an id card would be super easy and we'd be off the phone in 15 minutes, max, and then I ended up getting half an hour of overtime out of the deal.

 

[_19disnA]

We just spoke to our insurance specialist today and she told us all those ads will be gone next year.

That would be great so the elderly are no longer tricked into calling those numbers. I haven't heard anywhere else those ads will be ending, would have expected that news to be all over the internet if true. What was the source of their information?

I agree about any of those off shore call centers where the people can barely speak English. I have NO idea how someone who is elderly and prehaps hard of hearing can ever communicate with those places. Seems your son/daughter would always have to call on your behalf to get anything done.

 

[Dan Murphy]

That would be great so the elderly are no longer tricked into calling those numbers. I haven't heard anywhere else those ads will be ending, would have expected that news to be all over the internet if true. What was the source of their information?

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/cms-cracks-down-misleading-medicare-advantage-marketing