What the Medicare Proposal Means for Financial Institutions and Your Consumers
Americans age 65+ rely on Medicare to provide them retirement healthcare. Even with an increased focus on cost to the consumer and improved clarity of cost/ benefits, Medicare remains one of the most complex aspects of navigating retirement. For many Americans the consequences of making the ‘wrong’ election can live with them for the remainder of their retirement.
Last week CMS and the Biden administration announced proposals for major updates to Medicare. These proposals will be open for a comment period for 60 days and some of the proposals could be implemented as early as the 2024 enrollment period.
Some of the key proposals impacting retirees include
- New guardrails for plan compensation to agents and brokers: CMS’s marketing standards have been put in place to ensure that agents provide Americans access to the plan that meets their needs. CMS has flagged that financial incentives to agents and brokers, made more often by large plans, can result in beneficiaries being steered towards plans that offer better compensation to agents rather than being in the best interest of the prospective enrollee. The proposal seeks to expand the definition of compensation and proposes a national fixed compensation amount for Medicare Advantage of $642.
- Mid Year enrollment notification for supplemental benefits: Supplemental benefits, such as rides to doctors offices and gym memberships, are often offered via Medicare Advantage as a means for improving preventative healthcare thereby reducing costs to Medicare. But many of these services go unused. The CMS plan proposes requiring Medicare Advantage plans to send a personalized notification to their enrollees mid-year of the unused supplemental benefits available to them to encourage higher utilization.
- Improved access to behavioral care providers: CMS is taking steps to improve access to behavioral health care services for Medicare Advantage plan enrollees. Expansion of access would include services such as marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, addiction medicine clinicians, opioid treatment providers, and others.
- Increase competition/ reduces prices of prescription drugs : To support competition in the prescription drug marketplace, CMS is also proposing to provide more flexibility to substitute biosimilar biological products give people with Medicare more timely access to lower-cost biosimilar drugs.
What does this mean for financial institutions and your consumers in 2024?
Our research shows that Americans aging into retirement identify Medicare as one of the most complex retirement decisions they make. Financial institutions have an opportunity to double down on your mission for financial wellness and show consumers that you are here to ensure their hard earned retirement savings fund their retirement.
How Silvur can help you in 2024!
Silvur helps Americans age 50+ navigate key retirement decisions. We have learned that one of the most complex retirement decisions is medicare. Thats why we have over 100 retirement school lessons plus personalized tools and calculators just focused on helping soon to be retirees navigate Medicare.
