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September 30, 2022 at 12:23 PM
What You Need to Know
- Despite the anticipated end to the pandemic emergency period, many insurance carriers are choosing to keep many of the plan benefit changes.
- Fidelity's Stankard predicts more $0 premium plans, non-traditional benefits and increased telehealth.
Many Medicare Advantage plan issuers are keeping, and even improving, COVID-19 pandemic period emergency benefits they may be able to drop.
Harold Stankard, the head of Fidelity Medicare Services at Fidelity Investments, gave that assessment in a recent email interview.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the COVID-19 pandemic emergency period with a declaration letter posted July 15. HHS watchers believe the July 15 extension will end on Oct. 13.
Once the extension ends, Medicare Advantage plans could impose higher co-payments or coinsurance requirements for COVID-19 tests and treatments; cut telehealth benefits; and reduce enrollees’ access to telehealth benefits.
Instead, “we’ve observed that many insurance carriers are choosing to continue to offer many of the plan benefits that were rolled out in response to the pandemic, with some even planning enhancements to these benefits for 2023,” Stankard said.
What It Means
The Medicare Advantage plan market is still highly competitive, and issuers have financial incentives to cover services that may keep small problems from becoming big problems.
That may help clients’ Medicare benefits packages.
The Annual Enrollment Period
Medicare supplement insurance has its own enrollment period rules.
