After Top Senate Democrats Raise Alarm About Rising Number of Providers Leaving Medicare Advantage Plans and Call for Additional Protections for Seniors, Trump Administration Proposes Improvements
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., today issued a statement after the Trump administration proposed new steps to make it easier for seniors to switch their Medicare Advantage plan or choose Traditional Medicare if a doctor or hospital they use leaves their insurance plan network.
“American seniors should not have the rug pulled out from under them when it comes to seeing the doctor of their choice,” Wyden. “These proposed improvements will reduce confusion and make it easier for seniors to continue seeing their local health care providers. I urge CMS to finalize this proposal and bring more transparency and consumer protection to Medicare Advantage.”
“Navigating the health care landscape is hard enough as is – we shouldn’t be forcing seniors to jump through hoops in order to continue seeing the doctors they know and trust,” Warner said. “I’m glad to see CMS heed our call by proposing new measures that would allow Medicare Advantage enrollees to change their coverage more easily when they experience mid-year provider network changes. I’ll keep working with CMS to get this proposed rule finalized and ensure that elderly Americans can count on the continuity of care they need.”
In October, Wyden and Warner called on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to address the rising number of incidents where doctors or health care facilities leave a Medicare Advantage plan network, which triggers a “special enrollment period” that allows seniors to change plans. Over the past year, more than a dozen states have had provider network changes deemed “significant” by CMS.
Late last month, CMS proposed changes to streamline the process by allowing seniors to change plans if virtually any of the health care providers they see leaves their plan network. An enrollee who loses a provider within their plan network will be notified of the network change and their right to change plan or switch to Traditional Medicare with guaranteed access to Medigap coverage.
A web version of this release is here.
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