Medicare open enrollment time. Roll the deceptive ads.

It is October which can only mean one thing.

Yes. It’s that time or year when folks are putting that nasty stringy white stuff on their fences and bushes that is supposed too look like spider webs but doesn’t.

Plus artificial spider webs are made out of dense cotton, PVC, or other artificial fibers. The stretchy structures don’t break readily and can be difficult for animals to see at night or in low light conditions.

This makes it easy for small creatures to fly or walk into them and become stuck. I’ve been told that birds can get trapped in their fibers, leading to broken limbs.

Some birds have been seen using the artificial material to make their nests—and though a nest decked out in Halloween décor sounds cute to some, it can potentially trap or harm their chicks.

Bees and other small animals can also become stuck and injured in the webbing.

Stick to some orange lights and a carved pumpkin.

October is also Medicare’s open enrollment period. Starting October 15th we will begin facing the onslaught of mailers and TV ads.

We will see Joe Namath hawking some Medicare Advantage plan so often on TV we will think he’s running for office.

Over 65 million adults across the United States will have until December 7th to decide whether they plan to renew or change their Medicare coverage. Beneficiaries choose between Traditional Medicare (TM) and a variety of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug coverage.

For this enrollment cycle, it is estimated that the average beneficiary will have over 40 plans to choose from, leading to confusion for many older folks who are targeted.

Many are internally deceptive ads run by the big insurance companies add to the confusion.

In a recent study, the Commonwealth Fund identified how some of these practices are driven by the financial incentives associated with enrolling beneficiaries in particular MA plans.

Between robocalls and misleading television advertisements, many beneficiaries across the country have found themselves enrolled in MA plans they did not intend to enroll in, or that did not cover services or in-network providers that they were initially marketed.

Kaiser Family Foundation found that the majority of Open Enrollment-related advertisements last year promoted the Medicare logo and privately-operated hotlines, misleading beneficiaries into believing these were government sponsored ads and helplines.

This is the price we pay for having a private, for-profit healthcare system and a Medicare system that is moving more and more away from it’s original vision as a government program to a private insurance program.

The State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) is a free and unbiased resource for Medicare counseling that few beneficiaries are aware of.

There are 54 SHIP grantees (one in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). SHIP services are delivered by State Units on Aging or State Departments of Insurance in partnerships with their local Area Agencies on Aging and other community based partners.

Illinois SHIP can be reached here.

In 1990, the federal government implemented SHIPs to help support Medicare beneficiaries with free, one-to-one health insurance counseling and education within their communities. It is currently run by the Administration for Community Living (ACL). The ACL administers grants to states, who in turn provide funding to community-level subgrantees to maintain various networks of full-time, part-time, and/or volunteer counselors. The latest available data suggests that SHIPs provided assistance to 2.7 million Medicare beneficiaries from April 2018 through March 2019—just 4.5% of the eligible Medicare population.

While some states had greater success, serving over 10% of their eligible population, others were only able to reach as few as 2%.

The program has problems given the variation in operations across locations, with many having concerns over the recruitment, training and retention of volunteers and paid staff.

In recognition of SHIP’s potential to provide an unbiased alternative to brokers and combat misinformation, CMS finalized a requirement in the 2024 MA and Part D rule that third party marketers (TPMOs) are to provide a disclaimer citing SHIP as an option for beneficiaries to obtain additional help.

Retiree advocates have worried that the multi-tiered, volunteer, and part-time driven delivery model that characterizes most SHIPs leads to gaps and quality of access.

This is especially a concern among vulnerable beneficiaries who may live in low-income neighborhoods, have disabilities, or limited English proficiency.

Given their historically low utilization rates and limited visibility, others have expressed concern that SHIPs may be ill-equipped to handle an increased demand for services in the coming year, due to more Medicare beneficiaries being advised of their existence through TPMO disclaimers.

And they are up against the millions spent by the corporate healthcare insurance industry.