Friday morning will bring another monthly jobs report, the last reading on the economy before Tuesday’s election. Until then, here’s what we’re watching while trying to tune out incessant election ads.
‘Fraudsters and Scam Artists’ Plague Medicare Advantage: Report
You’ve probably seen TV ads featuring D-list celebrities pitching Medicare Advantage plans by claiming that seniors may be missing out on valuable benefits. But Medicare beneficiaries are also being inundated with other aggressive — and often deceptive — Medicare Advantage marketing tactics, according to a report released Thursday by Senate Finance Committee Democrats.
Among the examples in the report:
• Seniors shopping at their local grocery store are approached by insurance agents and asked to switch their Medicare coverage or MA plan.
• Seniors who were told by insurance agents that their doctors are covered by a new plan find out later that their doctor is not in network and they must pay out-of-pocket for a visit.
• Seniors receive marketing mailers designed to misleadingly look like official communication from a federal agency such as the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration or Medicare.
• Seniors get flooded with 20 calls a day from an insurance agent trying to convince them to switch their Medicare coverage.
The report, based on information from 14 states, found that such marketing practices are “widespread, not isolated events.” It said that five states had…
