Ritter Insurance Marketing

I originally saw this on a blog on the Huffington post and didn’t think that much would be made of this.  Here is the original blog posting from Dawn Teo.  I wasn’t sure of Dawn’s political leanings, so I checked out her twitter page!  Check it out for yourself and see if you can venture a guess!!

In any case, if you want to see the letter which Humana sent out, you can view the mailer and the envelope. 

In any case, this got picked up by Senator Max Baucus he urged CMS to take action (according to the Reuters Story on the matter).  CMS then fired off a letter to Humana which Senator Baucus posted on the Senate Finance Committee website (you can view here).

This whole thing bugs me.  I don’t know if Humana has any right to “Free Speech”, since they are a corporation and not an individual or if Humana violated any HIPAA laws by sending this to their members.  I’m not a lawyer.  I do understand CMS’ marketing rules pretty well and I don’t think this could be classified as “Marketing” since the intent wasn’t to steer Medicare Beneficiaries toward a plan or group of plans.  There are 2 calls to action:  (1) Opt into Humana’s Partner Program and (2) Let your member of Congress know why Medicare Advantage is important to you.  Nothing plan specific here.

The charges of “scare tactics” bugs me too.  One person’s “scare tactics” is another person’s “facts”.  Who gets to decide what are “scare tactics” and what are ”facts”???  The Huffington Post??  The Federal Government??  A lot depends on the person’s point of view which is why, I suppose, founders of our country wrote the First Ammendment.  It makes sense to me that it’s just plain easier to allow for free speech and set a very high standard for what is considered ”unprotected speech”.

Humana’s point of view is that Medicare Advantage is a good deal for 11 million seniors (which is why the Seniors enroll in the first place and stay enrolled year after year) and $177 Billion in cuts to the Medicare Advantage program might affect those member’s benefits.  Seems reasonable to me.  Some people would call it a “scare tactic”.

Unfortunately for Humana, the Huffington Post sees this as a “scare tactic”, Senator Baucus picks it up, sends it to CMS and the Federal Government threatens to drop the HAMMER on Humana.  (Pretty chilling to me.)

Would Senator Baucus urge CMS to be investigating Humana if they said this??  “SUPPORT Healthcare Reform in order to SAVE MEDICARE which is going BANKRUPT due to WASTEFUL SPENDING on the Medicare Advantage Program which doesn’t make Seniors any healthier and is just a GIVEAWAY to the insurance companies to pay HUGE EXECUTIVE BONUSES and MASSIVE PROFITS!”  Hmmmmm. . . .

In my opinion, CMS needs to determine if Humana should be allowed to express it’s point of view to it’s customers without regard to whether or not CMS, Senator Baucus or the Huffington Post agree or disagree with their point of view.  Also, can we please give our Seniors a little credit for having the intelligence to make up their own minds on this issue?  Do they really need the Federal Government to protect them from hearing Humana’s opinion on the matter, so they don’t get “scared”??  If the Greatest Generation was able to defeat the Axis Powers in World War II, I don’t think they “scare” too easily.

This is just one man’s thoughts.  I respect your right to agree or disagree.  I assume I’m allow to speak my mind in the United States of America??  We’ll see. . .