Advocates, Brokers, MAOs Promote Enrollees' 'Second Chance'

By Lauren Flynn Kelly

From brokers and insurers to medical societies and patient advocacy groups, everyone with an interest in Medicare this month appeared to begin promoting the newly reinstated Open Enrollment Period (OEP), which allows Medicare enrollees who selected a Medicare Advantage plan during the recent Annual Election Period (AEP) to make one change.

The 2019 AEP ran from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, and while final enrollment results won't be available until February, MA enrollment as of the Jan. 1, 2019, payment date was nearly 22.4 million, up 6.8% from 20.9 million a year earlier, according to new CMS data. The OEP, which last occurred in 2010 and was eliminated with the Affordable Care Act, began on Jan. 1 and will run through March 31. Various stakeholders are making an educational push to ensure that seniors are adequately informed of their options.

The National Council on Aging has been using Twitter to advise seniors of their "second chance" to change MA plans. And the Center for Medicare Advocacy has been informing seniors of this opportunity while posting charts aimed at clearly outlining the differences between Original Medicare and MA.

Meanwhile, CMS made clear in the updated Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines that plans may not knowingly target beneficiaries because they made a choice during the AEP. As a result, plans have focused their OEP efforts on education by adding OEP facts and information to their websites, posting blogs and articles on their Facebook pages and in newsfeeds, and sponsoring TV ads, observes Renee Mezzanotte with DMW Direct.

"One of the ways we monitor industry activity and spend is through Kantar Media," Mezzanotte tells AIS Health. "Medicare TV activity just for the first week is up over 17%. We anticipate this will increase as the quarter progresses."

Deft Research's 2018 Medicare Member Experience study showed that more than 25% of Medicare beneficiaries are aware of the OEP. Michael Blix, research manager with Deft, says that the same study observed the kinds of member experiences people have early in the plan year that might cause them to be dissatisfied and take advantage of the OEP's return. Those included members being billed more than they were expecting for a medical service and attempting to obtain a drug they used to fill that is no longer covered.

From RADAR on Medicare Advantage