Monday is National Call-in Day for Stopping Medicare Advantage Overpayments

From Frank Kaiser (suddenlysenior.com) July 20, 2007
Subject: [SeniorNews] Monday is National Call-in Day for Stopping Medicare Advantage Overpayments - from Suddenly Senior

WEEKLY ALERT FROM ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS

Monday is National Call-in Day for Stopping Medicare Advantage Overpayments

Your U.S. Representative needs to hear from informed seniors! Please join other Alliance members across the country by calling your Representative on Monday and urging support for legislation that would create a level playing field for traditional Medicare and private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Use this toll-free telephone number -- 1-800-828-0498 -- to call the Capitol Switchboard. Ask to be connected with the office of your member of Congress. Once you are connected, let the staff know that you support ending overpayments to MA insurance companies, and using those savings for increased assistance to low-income seniors and providing health coverage for uninsured children.

Following is a sample script you can use when talking to your Representative's office:

"Please support legislation that stops the overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans. Use the funds to improve traditional Medicare, strengthen assistance to low-income seniors, and provide coverage to uninsured children. Instead of giving insurance companies billions of extra dollars at the expense of the Medicare program, I urge you to support legislation to equalize payments between traditional Medicare and private Medicare Advantage plans."

An email was sent on Thursday to Alliance members, with a link for contacting Members of Congress with a similar message at: www.unionvoice.org/campaign/Stop_MA_Overpayments. Also on Thursday, members of the Nevada Alliance took part in an event revealing that MA costs each Nevadan an additional $294 per year, 3.5% more than traditional Medicare would cost.

According to a US Action Education Fund study, the private plans cost Nevada's seniors and people with disabilities an additional $4.1 million annually. "Given the misleading and abusive marketing practices directed at our seniors, these subsidies add insult to injury," said Brenda Mitchell, Vice President of the Nevada Alliance. The CBS Evening News focused on those marketing practices on both Monday and Tuesday nights, noting confusion over coverage, premiums, co-pays, and provider networks.

Included in the reports: a Kentucky woman who had to call 9-1-1 to get a Medicare Advantage salesman out of her house, and a Mississippi man who was only able to get off his MA plan 11 days after he died. His family now owes $40,000 in bills that Medicare has not paid. CBS also reported that at least 36,000 seniors have pulled out of their MA plans in just the first four months of this year, and nearly 100 private plans have been ordered by Medicare to change the way they do business. "I'm glad someone called 9-1-1," said George J. Kourpias, President of the national Alliance. "This is an emergency."

Pharmaceutical Companies Increase Lobbying Efforts in States

While the pharmaceutical industry has long been influential in Washington, D.C., it is redirecting many of its lobbying resources toward states in order to achieve its goals more quickly, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. Representatives of the drug companies' trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, note that state legislatures move much faster than Congress, and are much easier to influence given that legislation may evolve from its beginning stages to a signed piece of legislation in under 90 days.

In 2004, the last year for which data is available from the Center for Public Integrity, drug companies spent over $44 million lobbying states. Campaign contributions from the manufacturers and their employees to state candidates have simultaneously increased, rising from $4.6 million to $8.8 million from 2000 to 2006, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

A recent campaign to make pharmacists' switching patients from name-brand to generic epilepsy pills more difficult has used such a strategy to propose legislation in various states, bypassing expensive clinical testing required by the FDA for the rule to be considered at the national level. "We will be ready to stand up to big drug companies not just in Washington, D.C., but in every state," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance.

Two Senior CMS Officials Resign Two senior officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, have resigned. Acting CMS Administrator Leslie Norwalk will step down as of today, July 20. Her departure was originally scheduled to occur just after a July 18 hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on the nomination of Kerry Weems to permanently fill the post of CMS administrator. The hearing has been postponed until an unannounced date. S. Lawrence Kocot, senior adviser to the CMS administrator, will also be leaving today (Friday).

Alliance Legislative Conference: And the Winners Are? In just over 6 weeks - September 4-7, 2007 - the Alliance will be holding its National Legislative Meeting in Washington, D.C. The theme this year is "Building for America's Future." The President's Award will be presented to Elmer Blankenship, President of the Indiana Alliance, for his lifetime of public service on behalf of older Americans. The Leadership award will be presented to Sen. Debbie A. Stabenow (D-MI) in recognition of her years of outstanding leadership in the U.S. Congress on behalf of older Americans. To obtain copies of the official registration form, either call 1-888-373-6497, email Joni Jones at jjones@retiredamericans.org or visit our website at www.retiredamericans.org. The conference will be held at the Hilton Washington and Towers. Hotel reservations must be made by calling the Hilton and Towers directly at 1-888-324-4586. Be sure to ask for the Alliance for Retired Americans National Legislative Meeting attendee rate.

Did You Know ... In 1999, when 65 was the full retirement age, 66 percent of men and 71 percent of women applying for Social Security took early benefits. By 2005, when full retirement age had risen by one year to 66, a full 85 percent of men and women applying for Social Security took early benefits (CNN's Moneyline).