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Medicare upgrades popular online tool to help seniors shop, compare plans

The Trump administration overhauled the online tool for enrolling in the government's Medicare program for healthcare coverage, including for drug plans, making it more accessible for 21st-century devices, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said the redesign of the online Medicare plan finder — the first upgrade in a decade — is intended to make it easier for seniors and Americans with disabilities to shop for additional private insurance coverage under the program and for policies that pay for prescription medicines.

SNL ImageNew Medicare Plan Finder online tool
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

More than 60 million Americans are covered by Medicare, though not all of those people choose to enroll in Medicare Advantage or the Part D prescription drug program. Verma noted that about 10,000 people join Medicare each day.

The changes to the online Medicare tool were made as part of the administration's e-Medicare initiative, which Verma said was launched to meet the needs of a growing number of tech-savvy beneficiaries and their caregivers.

About 20 million Medicare beneficiaries used the older version of the plan finder in 2018 to select their Medicare Advantage and Part D plans, Verma noted during a media briefing with reporters. Of those, about 25% accessed it on mobile devices in 2018, an increase of about 40% from the year earlier, she said.

Medicare beneficiaries can still obtain help to enroll in the Medicare Advantage private insurance plans or the Medicare Part D drug program through the toll-free phone number and can request paper copies of a handbook intended to explain the available options, she emphasized.

But the revamped online tool is intended to empower beneficiaries to more easily compare prices and the quality of plans on the Medicare website, Verma told reporters.

She noted beneficiaries can also continue to use the old website until the end of September when it will go away.

The changes to the Medicare online tool came a month after the Government Accountability Office said in a July 26 report that the website was often challenging for beneficiaries to use in choosing their private health and drug plans. The GAO also said the website had incomplete information about the plans.

The plan finder also lacked an integrated provider directory, which left beneficiaries unable to use the platform to narrow their options in selecting Medicare Advantage plans, GAO said.

The government investigators acknowledged that at the time of their report, CMS was working on overhauling the website and planned to unveil the revised tool in August.

A CMS official admitted the site continues to lack an integrated provider directory for Medicare Advantage shoppers but said the tool includes links to the plans' provider directories.

"That was one of the findings in the GAO report that we continue to look at how we could enhance that in the future," the official said. "The agency does not, at the moment, have that data to build that tool. But it is a future enhancement we're looking at."

Verma noted that once finalized, a proposed interoperability rule that would require health plans to have their provider directories in an application programming interface format would help the agency incorporate that information into the Medicare plan finder.

Options

The updated website has reorganized information so that Medicare shoppers can do a side-by-side comparison of the costs and benefits of up to three Medicare Advantage plans, including those with extra benefits. It has a similar option for the Part D drug plans.

SNL ImageNew Medicare Plan Finder mobile tool
Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

On the refurbished website, Medicare beneficiaries can also compare the costs of the brand-name medicines they take with cheaper generic versions, Verma noted.

Verma said the new Medicare plan finder website was tested on beneficiary and consumer focus groups and others while it was being developed and before it was launched to ensure the information was being displayed in the most understandable and easiest to use format.

She noted the reconstructed tool also includes an area for beneficiaries to provide feedback so that the website can be improved when needed.

CMS said it will provide a public webinar session for beneficiaries and their caregivers in September on how to use the new plan finder tool and will also make learning videos and tip sheets available ahead of the Oct. 15 enrollment start date.