On December 10th, a bipartisan group of congressional leaders from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about their concerns with the erroneous information on the newly redesigned Medicare Plan Finder. The letter references the errors and inaccurate information that advocates, such as California Health Advocates, and Medicare counselors across the country have encountered in helping people compare Medicare Advantage and prescription drug plan options during this year’s Open Enrollment. They have a number of questions for CMS to respond to, including asking for data on the website’s usage this year as compared to the last 5 years, and a complete list of all the errors, inaccuracies and complaints CMS received from Medicare counselors with the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP), advocates across the country and calls to 1-800-Medicare. They also ask CMS to make sure affected beneficiaries who relied on faulty information from the MPF will be held harmless and given an opportunity to change their coverage in the new year.
This letter comes after another one the week before from 15 U.S. Senators. That one also highlights accuracy and functionality problems with MPF and urges CMS to publicly announce the remedy (i.e. a Special Enrollment Period) available to those who may have chosen the wrong plan after using MPF.
See the bipartisan letter from the U.S. House of Representatives below for more information. If you or others you know come across additional inaccuracies or ongoing errors, please report them to both your local Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) and 1-800-Medicare.
