Joanna Robin reports for The New Republic on the firm behind the Joe Namath TV ads pushing Medicare Advantage and the Medicare “helpline.” As I’ve reported before, you should tune those ads out, just as you do other spam. Fuggetaboudem!
Benefytt Technologies is behind the Medicare Advantage ads. It owns Together Health, which in turn partners with Humana, Aetna and WellCare to push their Medicare Advantage plans. You should beware the can of worms that Joe Namath does not share with you. He wouldn’t talk to Robin about them. He doesn’t know from Medicare Advantage; he’s simply getting paid to read from a script.
Before changing its name to Benefytt Technologies, the company sold short-term health insurance policies under the name Health Insurance Innovations. Robin suggests that its biggest innovation was to charge $500 a month to unsuspecting people for a health insurance policy that failed to cover their basic, let alone their catastrophic, medical needs.
Health Insurance Innovations (Benefytt Technologies) was mired in lawsuits. It was also caught in a sea of state and FTC actions for violating its obligations and forced to pay out tens of millions to settle.
In 2020, it paid a $1.5 million fine for violating Washington state laws 50,000 times.
Much like the Medicare Advantage plans that the company now pushes, it is always morphing, making it impossible to oversee adequately, let alone to be kept in check and penalized appropriately. As Robin explains, it’s “regulatory Whac-a-Mole.”
What are you getting when you sign up for one of Benefytt Technologies’ Medicare Advantage plans? I can just about guarantee you that it’s not what you think. I can also guarantee that CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) does not have the resources to ensure that these Medicare Advantage plans are doing right by people with Medicare. It also lacks the tools to punish them appropriately and protect you if it catches them violating their contractual obligations.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Well-kept secrets of Medicare Advantage plans
- Your right to buy a Medigap policy when you enroll in traditional Medicare
- Four things to think about when choosing between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans
- 2022: Medicare Part D coverage and costs
- Avoid bad Medicare Advantage plans
