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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials are investigating whether Humana Inc (HUM.N) used so-called "scare tactics" when contacting its Medicare Advantage health insurance plan customers and warning them about pending health reform legislation, according to a letter released on Monday.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled as well as privately-run Medicare Advantage options, ordered Humana to halt all related outreach until the agency concluded its investigation.
CMS said Humana's letter alleges "that current health care reform legislation affecting Medicare could hurt 'millions of seniors and disabled individuals who could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare advantage health plans so valuable.'"
The letter could violate federal regulations, it added.
"CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries... makes several other claims about the legislation and how it will be detrimental to enrollees, ultimately urging enrollees to contact their congressional representatives to protest the actions referenced in the letter," CMS wrote Humana in a letter dated September 18.
U.S. Medicare probes Humana over letter to patients | Special Coverage | Reuters
This is strictly an attempt to bully any opposition to the unpopular Government health care takeover and silence any critics.
The Baucus bill will cut $123 billion from the Medicare Advantage program over the next 10 years and all Humana did was point out this fact.
In fact, the Baucus draft legislation slashes $123 billion over the next decade from Medicare Advantage, which Democrats hate despite the fact that almost one-fourth of beneficiaries have chosen it over traditional fee-for-service Medicare. One reason seniors like it is because private insurers focus on quality and preventive care and try to manage benefits, as opposed to simply paying bills.
A new study from America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, finds that seniors on Advantage in California spent 30% fewer days in hospitals over fee-for-service patients, based on federal data. Democrats say that insurers are "overpaid," but the cuts—as Humana correctly noted—mean that seniors may lose this coverage.
Mr. Baucus doesn't want seniors to be educated about these facts, and obviously he's willing to use his enormous power to punish any private company that doesn't affirm his, well, creative version of reality. Nearly half of Humana's yearly revenue comes from Medicare Advantage, and the insurer says that it is complying in full with the CMS investigation. Yesterday, the agency also barred all Advantage insurers from providing similar information to their beneficiaries.
This episode neatly shows how all U.S. health care will operate if Mr. Baucus's bill becomes law. For months Humana and the wider insurance lobby have been among ObamaCare's most prominent cheerleaders, with the exception of Advantage cuts and the public option—even though they'll be converted into government contractors in the business of fulfilling whatever Congress happens to dictate. The insurers are willing to give up their remaining business autonomy because Democrats intend to mandate that all consumers buy their products—but as with Advantage now, that means government will control the funds upon which the insurers' survival depends. They'll have no choice but to genuflect, or else the political class will pull out the tire irons.
Baucus Bullies Humana Inc. - WSJ.com
What's next?.. IRS audits for private citizens that question the virtue and benevolence of these thugs in DC?