Seniors in LaPlata County have been receiving calls from their Medicare Advantage insurer (UnitedHealth, Humana, Cigna, etc.) offering a nurse visit, which consists of a home checkup and often a gift card. To the senior, this seems like a good thing.
However, according to an investigative report in The Wall Street Journal on July 8, this is part of the for-profit insurer’s effort to take more money from Medicare funding. If the nurse finds any illness, medically verified or not, the insurer can charge Medicare at a higher rate. These illnesses are not reported to the patient’s doctor, and frequently are not evaluated or treated.
The additional fees add up, and according to the Journal, these insurers pocketed $50 billion for this systematic “upcoding” or making the patient appear sicker.
Medicare Advantage programs now cover more than half the Medicare population. Rather than save taxpayer funds as intended, these programs add tens of billions in cost on an annual basis, without showing improved care. By comparison, Traditional Medicare is much more cost effective.
There is already serious concern that the Medicare program will run out of money before the next generation has a chance to access this benefit. Yet both Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet (who is on the Finance Committee) signed an industry-sponsored letter in support of Medicare Advantage.
As taxpayers with an eye to the future, seniors should reconsider their Medicare Advantage program and write to our senators, urging that they too think of future Coloradans.
Joan MacEachen
Durango
