Learning to Love Insurance Brokers

(Within Limits!)

Insurance brokers are the latest bad guys in health care, accused with good reason of misleading consumers and, in the case of people signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, switching people to new plans without their knowledge.

In response to policy switching, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a warning shot that effectively told agents and brokers: We are watching you!

“CMS is taking swift actions to protect consumers from unauthorized activity by agents and brokers,” the agency said, “and to root out bad actors who are violating CMS rules.” I would love to see CMS name names here, but the wheels of regulatory justice can move slowly.

Earlier in the month, CMS said the fees offered to brokers by health insurers could result in consumers being steered to Medicare plans that were in the brokers’ financial interests but not best suited to consumer needs.