With the media reporting daily on Congress' and President Obama's efforts to enact meaningful health reforms this year, many Humana Medicare Advantage (MA) members are contacting us with
questions. Members just like you want to know what these reforms might mean for their Medicare health plan and how they can get involved to help protect Medicare Advantage.
...Leading health reform proposals being considered in Washington, D.C., this summer include billions in Medicare Advantage funding cuts, as well as spending reductions to original Medicare and Medicaid. While these programs need to be made more efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable. ~The Government got wind of this and sent off this rocket
CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance for the MA and Part D programs and other federal law, including HIPAA. As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website.
Please be advised that we take this matter very seriously and, based upon the findings of our investigation, will pursue compliance and enforcement actions.
Several points here;
1. is it proper for the Government to issue instructions to individuals and companies based on "potential" contraventions of the Law?
2. as they are yet to finalise their investigation hasn't the Government already prejudged the outcome of those findings?
3. has the Government overstepped the mark by using the Law to restrict debate of its policies?
As President Barack Obama said recently
Now I think that what's driving passions right now is that health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in our economy...
