Health Agents Urge Everyone to Take Action and Sign Petition Immediately 

 

 

We all know the commercials during the pandemic that had a famous athelte or actor preaching about Medicare coverage. CMS recently released their 2023 final rule which includes two requirements that will have a significant impact on independent agents and brokers who sell Medicare Advantage and/or Part D plans.

Effective Date

While the marketing guideline changes are for calendar year 2023, they go into effect October 1, 2022, just before the start of the 2023 Annual Election Period for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans.

But the agency’s regulations aimed at fighting misleading Medicare Advantage claims are not sitting well with a health insurance agents’ association, whose members are urged to sign a petition against these rules.

Members of Health Agents for America are being asked to sign a petition on Change.org,  asking CMS to reverse its requirements that licensed and certified independent agents record phone calls that result in enrolling a client into a Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.

The Reason for These Changes

The ruling is thought to be in response to an onslaught of misleading TV commercials by Third Party Marketing Organizations (TPMO’s) and the subsequent increase of consumer complaints to CMS. With this final rule the definition of TPMO’s was expanded to include agents and brokers. It has been argued that consumer dissatisfaction is not usually with their agent of record but with TPMO call centers that solicit beneficiaries to switch plans that do not necessarily meet their needs. As of now, CMS has made no changes to the final rule so you should be preparing to be in compliance by October 1.