SMP Corner Senior Medicare Patrol Excerpt from Medicare Minute 2022
Marketing violations that could affect your 2022 coverage. Medicare Advantage Plans and stand-alone Part D plans are administered, marketed, and sold by private companies. Plan representatives, agents, and brokers must follow federal guidelines when marketing to you. These guidelines protect you from manipulative/ deceptive sale and enrollment tactics that can lead to marketing violations by a plan. Here are some red flags: • You signed up for a plan after being told by an agent or company that certain services or prescriptions were covered, but after enrolling, you discovered they were not covered by that plan. • A company represented itself as coming from or sent by Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid. • You received an unsolicited phone call or text from a plan with which you have no prior relationship, you have asked not to contact you, or of which you disenrolled from. • A plan agent returned uninvited to your residence after missing an earlier appointment. • An agent discussed other insurance products, such as life insurance or annuities, during a visit or meeting that was scheduled to only discuss a Part D or Medicare Advantage product. Take Action: 1. Review and understand your Medicare health costs. If you have Original Medicare, review your Medicare & You 2022 handbook or request one by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, see the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC), or call your plan to learn more about your costs and coverage. 2. If you are unhappy with your coverage for 2022, find out if you can make changes during the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period or during a Special Enrollment Period. Contact your SHIP for help. 3. Pay attention to the news, your SHIP, and CMS for any updates on how the public health emergency may affect Medicare coverage rules in 2022. 4. Contact your Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) if you enrolled in a plan because of misleading information or were enrolled in a plan without your consent. Local SMP- PCOA 520.790.7573 x 2019 Lkhumal@pcoa.org This project was supported, in part by grant number 90SAPG0049, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy
Page 6 | February 2022, Never Too Late
Pima Council on Aging
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