The Wall Street Journal reports:
"The federal government has given the go-ahead for seven health-plan sponsors to resume marketing Medicare private fee-for-service plans to older people after finding the sponsors in compliance with requirements.Posted by schwitz at September 25, 2007 07:22 AM | TrackBackThe organizations had suspended their marketing of the plans in June after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressed concern about deceptive practices by some insurance agents. ...
Rep. Pete Stark (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Health Subcommittee, wasn't convinced that sponsors and CMS had done enough.
Rep. Stark, who has targeted Medicare Advantage funding, wrote that he has "seldom seen CMS respond to private fee-for-service plans' marketing abuses as they should, with civil penalties or expulsion from Medicare. ... Talk is cheap, and I look forward to action when private fee-for-service plans are again caught misleading Medicare beneficiaries."
He said that states should be able to oversee all private plans.
"These seven plans certainly weren't readmitted based on an open and transparent process that assured Congress or America's seniors that plans' behavior has changed," Mr. Stark said."