White House: Medicare HMO patients won’t be `disrupted’

Intent on cutting Medicare HMOs without angering current patients in places like South Florida, the White House has negotiated a way to gradually phase down spending on these popular health insurance plans. About 350,000 South Florida patients who have signed on to Medicare Advantage plans would still get extra goodies, such as low premiums, dental care and gym memberships. Nancy-Ann DeParle “We’ve come up with something that we believe is equitable that does phase the payments down but does it in such a way that is not disruptive to beneficiaries who have been getting the extra benefits,” said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. DeParle briefed reporters on Tuesday about this and other tweaks to health-reform legislation that is headed toward momentous votes in the House this week. Cuts to Medicare spending would help finance the reforms – a prospect that alarms some senior citizens, especially those who take advantage of MA plans run by private HMOs. “Those plans (nationwide) have been over-paid for a decade now,” DeParle said, citing estimates that MA plans cost on average 14 percent more than traditional Medicare. “We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars in that fashion.” To protect current patients, Florida Senator Bill Nelson injected a provision in the Senate bill. It was designed to allow current enrollees to keep their extra benefits in places like South Florida, where HMOs can operate at the same cost as traditional Medicare reimbursements. DeParle agrees with Nelson that “when you make a change to it, you need to do it mindfully so that you are not disrupting

the beneficiaries who, through no fault of their own, signed up for what they thought was a good deal.” Nelson’s provision would help HMO patients in Florida and about a dozen other states. The tweaks being worked out by the White House and House leaders would create “a more equitable way to phase down these payments,” DeParle said. She did not specify those changes, which are expected to be unveiled with the rest of the health-care package as early as Wednesday. House leaders hope to pass the Senate version of health reform, which would send a bill to President Obama to be signed into law despite Republican opposition. To reassure liberal Democrats who don’t like the Senate version, the House plans to consider a separate “reconciliation” bill to make some adjustments, including the tweaks to the Medicare Advantage provision. “No, there aren’t special deals in there for Florida. Arizona, California, New York and the other states,” she said. “The formula is fair and phases down the benefits in such a way that it doesn’t penalize the seniors who haven’t signed up for this.” She said the reconciliation bill also will call for closing the so-called doughnut hole – a gap in prescription drug coverage under Medicare. About 8 million patients nationwide fall into this gap each year, forcing them to pay a lot more for medicine. “A fair number are in Florida, as you might imagine, because you have a heavy senior population,” DeParle said. “They will be seeing that benefit.”

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White House: Medicare HMO patients won’t be `disrupted’

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