Baucus Will Seek Bans On Unfair Medicare Marketing

Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said a meeting
between members of the panel and leaders of the nation’s major health insurance companies
should result in stronger consumer protections for America’s seniors. Baucus launched an effort
in the Committee this year to end unscrupulous marketing practices that snare seniors into
unwanted or unneeded private Medicare plans. At today’s meeting in the Finance Committee
hearing room, the Association of Health Insurance Plans committed to a number of proposals for
legally banning unscrupulous marketing by plan agents on the ground. Baucus said legislative
recommendations from AHIP – which include prohibitions on “cold calls” from agents and on
financial inducements to pressure seniors – are a “huge step forward,” and that he expects the
group to work with the Committee to ban these and several other predatory marketing tactics
outright.

“The Finance Committee just won’t stand for companies preying on America’s seniors, and
I think the insurers selling these private Medicare plans get that now. AHIP and the
insurers came in with strong proposals to stop abusive tactics like cold calls and financial
inducements to bribe seniors into private Medicare plans they don’t want or need. The
Finance Committee will want to go further to protect seniors, but we’ve started a good
discussion with the purveyors of these plans,” Baucus said. “I intend to write these and
other protections for seniors into law with my Medicare bill this year. The members of the
Finance Committee are clearly committed to working together and will seek to work with
insurers, where appropriate, to make sure seniors aren’t victimized by unscrupulous
agents.”

In addition to prohibitions on cold calls, door-to-door marketing, and financial inducements for
seniors, AHIP’s proposals included better training of sales agents, stronger oversight at the local
level, and other measures. Baucus said today that a number of additional provisions must be
enacted to fully protect seniors, including:

• A prohibition on agents suggesting home visits to seniors. Home visits should only be
  allowed pursuant to seniors’ express requests.
• A prohibition on gifts or meals used to entice seniors to listen to sales presentations.
• Oversight authority to monitor and enforce senior protections at the state level to
  compensate for a lack of oversight by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

In the meeting, Baucus also reiterated his concern regarding private Medicare Advantage
providers that tie their agents’ bonus and compensation to the total number of approved
applications, rather than to ensuring that consumers have the appropriate plan and coverage. He
expects to bring Medicare legislation forward for consideration this spring.

Information on the Finance Committee’s February 7 and February 13 hearings on marketing of
private Medicare plans is available online at http://finance.senate.gov/.

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