Medicare Advantage Selling Season - 8 Weeks Long & NO OEP

[Frank Stastny]

The "smart agents" are gearing up to begin offering Med Supps starting October 1, 2010.

 

[Newby]

Am I reading that you guys wish the government would REQUIRE private business people (doctors) to accept methods of payment that the choose not to?
that is some screwed up thinking right there.

 

[lisaann66]

The "smart agents" are gearing up to begin offering Med Supps starting October 1, 2010.

The smart agents have been offering Med Supps all along!

Jdeasy, thanks for your reply...... I found it in the ACT...900 some pages...good lord!

 

[Frank Stastny]

The smart agents have been offering Med Supps all along!

Yes we have been and will continue to do so.

 

[Post Quartermaster]

I guess I am the only broker who has clients who are poor.

This year I switched more people from med supps to med adv. than ever before.

The simple reason was people just couldn't afford $200 a month when they can see the same doctors for $0.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

What are the reasons here for problems with med adv?

1. Doctors not accepting it. most MA companies (at least here in FL) pay 100% of medicare and some even more. So why don't they? I have seen enough medicare fraud the last six years to lose respect for doctors. So when a DR. says they only accept medicare and a supp or just medicare. I don't trust them.

While I agree with most of what you said, from the provider side, there are some instances where refusing MA's makes sense from a reimbursement perspective.

The first example that comes to mind for me (and one of the biggest problems; though minor, in our market) has been Teaching Hospitals. Generally not a problem for us in large metro areas, Teaching Hospitals in rural areas have a disincentive to accept MA's, b/c they get a higher medicare reimbursement level with original medicare.