bigfrie
Expert
Just got an email from Ritter today stating that we must submit out websites to CMS by 03/11/2015 for approval.
At CMS, all eyes are on agent websites that market Medicare Advantage and Part D plans with the intent to collect beneficiary information for leads.
They recently discovered numerous third-party websites that violate their marketing requirements. These violations include:
Inappropriate requests for health information
Misleading information
Use of superlatives and other prohibited verbiage
Lack of required disclaimers
What This Means for You
If your website requests consumer contact information to be used or distributed as a lead, it must comply with CMS' marketing requirements. All carriers are required to start submitting agent websites into HPMS for review beginning March 11, 2015. Agents whose websites are found to be non-compliant will face what CMS is describing as "appropriate and immediate action."
Please stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, you can find the full CMS Memo attached to this e-mail.
Appears to apply to only those who market MA and PDP.
They recently discovered numerous third-party websites that violate their marketing requirements. These violations include:
Inappropriate requests for health information
Misleading information
Use of superlatives and other prohibited verbiage
Lack of required disclaimers
What This Means for You
If your website requests consumer contact information to be used or distributed as a lead, it must comply with CMS' marketing requirements. All carriers are required to start submitting agent websites into HPMS for review beginning March 11, 2015. Agents whose websites are found to be non-compliant will face what CMS is describing as "appropriate and immediate action."
Please stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, you can find the full CMS Memo attached to this e-mail.
Appears to apply to only those who market MA and PDP.
bigfrie
Expert
Every year it's always something with CMS. Last year we got our commissions adjusted and now this year they want to nitpick at websites. I am really contemplating giving up MA and PDP. It's all ridiculous
A lot of agents have given up on it.
- 948
NEWSFLASH!! CMS hates agents!
- 249
There is some truth that CMS HATES agents, but more to the truth is that the mission of CMS is to protect the public FROM agents.
The regulators and the regulated should be adversaries. When the regulated 'owns' the regulators, there is usually little regulation.
"Do as adversaries in law, strive mightily, But eat and drink as friends."
-Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 2
- 948
Ah, but the insurance companies "regulated", do own CMS "regulators" in a way by funding lobbying efforts to get what they want! Look at O-care. Everyone is forced to buy insurance that is more expensive than ever, and the insurance companies' profits soar, while cutting commissions for agents to the point where many will drop those lines of business. Strike up a big win for the "regulated".
Unfortunately the independent agent who is, in many cases, offering choice of product & education to the client is being eliminated from the picture, leaving the insured to fend for themselves. Their aggressive oversight is concentrated on the wrong entities in the system.
CMS doesn't hate agents, they are just painted that way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAnNvnViJpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAnNvnViJpo
- 2,177
Every "Beltway Bandit" company that contracts with the federal government knows that tough, sometimes frustrating, and ever-changing regulations are just part of the deal. I don't believe it's anything as personal as hatred, or that insurance agents are singled out and treated differently than any private business that accepts payment for work related to government contracts. I may not have taken that view had I not lived for years in suburban DC and heard similar tales of regulatory frustration from friends who did government contract work, none of them in insurance.
