Posted on 10/09/2009 5:54:07 AM PDT by harpu
The letter below was sent by Let Freedom Ring, Inc. on October 8, 2009.
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Michael S. Marquis Director, Freedom of Information Group Room N2-20-16 7500 Security Boulevard Baltimore, MD 21244-1850
FOIA REQUEST -- Expedited processing requested
Dear Mr. Marquis (or current FOIA Officer):
Pursuant to the Federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to and copies of all correspondence, notes, emails, faxes, telephone logs, office visit logs, records of meetings and related documents exchanged between United States Senator Max Baucus' office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (CMS) directly or indirectly related to a letter that Humana, Inc. sent to its Medicare Advantage policyholders suggesting that proposed health-care legislation could lower their benefits.
I would like to receive the information in electronic format when practical, otherwise paper.
I agree to pay reasonable duplication fees for the processing of this request in an amount not to exceed $1,000.00. If you anticipate that this will not cover your costs, please notify me prior to your incurring any expenses in excess of that amount.
If my request is denied in whole or part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Act. I will also expect you to release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information.
Please provide expedited processing of this request which concerns a matter of urgency. As a public policy organization president, I am primarily engaged in disseminating information. The public has an urgent need for information about the possibility that undue influence was exerted on CMS to encourage your agency to admonish Humana and, by implication, to threaten other Medicare Advantage insurers. It is critical that the public be informed before the conclusion of the health care debate in the Senate whether political pressure was a factor in CMS' decision to write to Humana telling them to cease urging its enrollees to call their lawmakers about proposed cuts to Medicare Advantage plans. I certify that my statements concerning the need for expedited processing are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.
I look forward to your reply within 20 business days, as the statute requires, although I would appreciate an earlier response reflecting the urgency of the matter in the context of the consideration of the health care reform legislation by the Senate and its Committees, in particular, the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Baucus.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Colin A. Hanna
President
Let Freedom Ring, Inc.
If you remember, could you ping me should you see something else on this? I’ll ping you as well, if I see something.
Nice. Good work. Hammer these b*******.
Great job. Can others send one in for this? How much does it cost.
We need to start digging and send FOIA’s on anything to do with ACORN.
What is the background on this?
Go to the Fall 2009 issue of Range Magazine and read the article on page 72.
Baucus engineered a land bond deal in Montana with grossly inflated values of the land given to the ‘owners’ and the shaft being given to the people of Montana. The land deal involves ‘Plum Creek” lands.
He lied over and over about the cost of that land deal, and Baucus is lying about the cost of ‘Health care”.
Range Magazine is published quarterly in Carson City, Nevada.
Good one, and look forward to any responses to this FOIA request. My guess is that he will delay, delay, then offer minimal — even though the public disclosure law is directive and clear.
The background is that Humana (a Medicare Advantage plan sponsor) sent out a letter to their members saying that the current health reform legislation contains significant cuts to the rates CMS pays to Medicare Advantage plans, and therefore, it is likely Medicare Advantage benefits will be cut and/or the premiums that the member pays will go up. Baucus had a hissy fit and contacted CMS, who contacted Humana and told them to cease and desist.
When the administration is saying Medicare benefits will not be cut, they are talking about traditional fee for service Medicare. Medicare Advantage is the program where members voluntarily sign up with a private plan, which can be an HMO, PPO, PFFS, etc. The Medicare Advantage (MA) plan receives funding from CMS and may also charge members an additional premium. They offer benefits that are richer than traditional Medicare benefits, in some cases, much richer.
It seems pretty obvious that if the CMS payments are lowered, that MA plans will have to compensate by adjusting benefits or premiums. But somehow, the govt thinks there is this magical fat in the system and they can reduce payments by 100s of billions and benefits and premiums won’t be affected. Actually, I don’t think they are that stupid. They are most likely just pretending (i.e. lying).
I didn’t see the exact statement, but from what I heard, it was pretty innocuous (e.g. it’s likely benefits will go down and premiums up. no duh!). But CMS claimed Humana was making misleading statements.
I had a Cat-scan of ears, and skull and my hospital charged $1105.00 and Medicare paid.........$10.23 now isn't that great coverage????
The govt pays out over $9000 per year per beneficiary, on average. And that’s after you consider that the rates Medicare pays providers (e.g. hospitals) can be as low as 15% of the hospital’s billed charge. Granted, most insurers have significant discounts off billed charges, but nowhere near that low. So, not only do taxpayers foot the bill for the $9000/year, they get stuck paying higher prices for hospital and physician services as providers compensate for low Medicare payment rates by charging private payers more (known in the industry as cost shifting).
Combine that with the fact that middle-aged people like myself probably won’t get a dime from Medicare because the system will have long since gone belly up. Most likely means-testing will be implemented in the near future (it’s already started with the Part B premiums). Probably, for Social Security too. So, if you’ve been responsible, worked hard and saved all your life, your reward will be the govt telling you that it’s not fair that you should get SS and Medicare benefits when others have greater need.
Plus, you could buy a Medigap policy for about $150/month and have virtually all your medical costs covered with no copay. Or buy an MA plan for an even lower premium and have some modest copays. Bottom line: you have it pretty good compared to what’s in store for the generations following you.
“Medicare Advantage (MA)”
Medicare Advantage is MEDICARE ADVANTAGE NOT MA!!
Not sure what your point is. People in the industry commonly refer to it as MA, and I defined my abbreviation in my post so it would be clear what I was referring to.
Ah, I just noticed your sig, but I don’t understand it.
I work at CMS......we call it just Advantage or Part C.
“Medicare Advantage (MA)”
+++++++++++++++
This is better than most people. Often acronyms alone are tossed out and it’s assumed everyone knows them well. :)
It probably depends on what part of CMS you work for. I frequently deal with CMS actuaries, and they refer to MA and MA-PD plans. In fact, the bid instructions and call letter published by CMS refer to it this way. For example:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PrescriptionDrugCovContra/Downloads/2010CallLetter.pdf
The insurance industry is notorious for varying terminology, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that there are variations. Before Medicare Advantage, it was Medicare+Choice, and before that Medicare Risk. Sometimes you also hear Medicare HMO, although less so these days since there are now other options than just HMO.
They just HATE the fact that Humana, Wellpoint (Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield in many states) can take the same amount typically spent on beneficiaries by traditional Medicare alone and provide beneficiaries with far broader coverage, many times at ZERO in premiums, or very low monthly outlays that under-cut traditonal Medicare Supplement insurance!!!
Thus, once again, the private sector can do it all better, faster and cheaper, showing the traditional governmental program to be extremely inefficient. You know how union types HATE when someone comes in a job and works hard and saves employer resources. They'll come up to such a person and tell them to stop "making everyone else on the job look bad!"
This Medicare Advantage program is what Obama refers to as "Waste, Fraud & Abuse" and a "subsidy" to private sector insurers. He also will terminate the Health Savings Accounts, because they also are one of the most effective things in health insurance today to reduce costs known as "consumer driven" health insurance!
My Medicare Advantage PPO gives me every bit as much freedom as traditional Medicare and even pays for my "Part D" prescription program with NO monthly premium outlay!!!
Ummmm....Not sure what advantage plan you have, but what happens is that you sign up for part B and Part D and the money that you pay or is deducted from your social security monthly amount for B and D goes to Humana or your advantage insurer and advantage takes care of your medical needs.
This pisses off Medicare because they don't see the money, but they also don't see the expenses! Nor do they have to process the claims.
So advantage does cost you. You would be paying the same to Medicare anyway and some plans offer dental and vision care and they cover the donut hole in the drug plan for a small additional monthly payment.
The funny thing about Baucus cutting advantage is that every dime of expense that advantage currently pays will be transferred back to Medicare. There will be no savings from the cuts, because every dime of profit made by Humana and the other Advantage insurer's comes from additional monthly plan fees that Advantage members pay and efficiencies that they have that Medicare can only dream of.. Some don't pay additional fees but only have basic coverage just as it was with Medicare.
There will be no savings to the Medicare system from killing advantage. On the contrary, it will cost them big time.
People in MT probably never realized that the senator they keep entrenched is there for more than MT “pork”, but he is a willing participant in the destruction of the country. What does that say about stand-pat voters in MT?
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