Before I begin I want to wish all my Dads out there…..

Happy Father’s Day!

I am an old fart and retired and most people I know are retired or close to retirement and I keep a watch on what is going on with Medicare and the insurance giants.

I have been trying to warn my readers of the dangers and the scams run under the guise of “Medicare Advantage” tag.

Since last year I have been warning my readers that are considering one of these ‘plans’ to beware and why….

Medicare Advantage Plans

A new analysis of these plans illustrates just how bad and how deep these swindles go.

A new academic analysis published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine details the enormous sums that privatized Medicare Advantage plans have cost U.S. taxpayers in recent years and calls for the abolition of the program, which has been massively profitable for the insurance giants that dominate it.

Citing the nonpartisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the paper notes that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have overcharged the federal government to the tune of $612 billion since 2007—and $82 billion last year alone.

MA plans—now used by more than half of the eligible Medicare population—utilize a range of tactics to reap larger payments from the federal government, which provides insurers a lump sum for each Medicare Advantage patient. The size of the payment depends on the enrollee’s health, which MA plans are notorious for portraying as worse than it is in order to receive heftier government payments.

“Paradoxically, despite those overpayments, MA plans spend 9% less on medical services than [fee-for-service] Medicare spends for comparable enrollees,” reads the new study. “If MA plans pay for less care, where do the overpayments go? Some pay for supplementary benefits, although plans do not disclose how much they spend on them, and MA enrollees do not get significantly more dental care or incur lower out-of-pocket dental costs than those in FFS Medicare. Instead, overhead and profit eats up the lion’s share.”

The study’s authors estimate that MA plans’ overhead from 2007 to 2024 was $592 billion, which is “equivalent to 97% of taxpayers’ $612 billion overpayments to them during that period.”

Dr. Adam Gaffney, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the new study, said in a statement that “Medicare Advantage is a bad deal for taxpayers.”

“Money that could be used to eliminate all copayments or shore up Medicare’s Trust Fund is instead lining insurers’ pockets,” said Gaffney. “And the private insurers keep Medicare Advantage enrollees from getting needed care by erecting bureaucratic hurdles like prior authorizations and payment denials.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/medicare-advantage-cost

Please read all the information if you want to save your cash….do not listen to the hype….ask questions and arm yourself with facts not promises.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I hope the Dads have a great day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”