WellPoint Suspended from Selling Medicare Advantage & Part D Plans
Kevin Kingsbury from the Dow Jones Newswires reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have forbidden WellPoint from adding new members to its Medicare plans. Compliance problems were discovered in separate audits.
As of January 13th, WellPoint is suspended from selling Medicare Advantage (hospital and physician coverage under a private plan) and Medicare Part D coverage (which covers prescription drugs).
Almost 2 million people have bought the company’s Part D coverage, while 3.7% (1.3 million) of their members are seniors on medicare. This suspension will be in effect until WellPoint fixes its undisclosed issues. The decision was a shock to WellPoint, since it have spent the past 6 months working closely with CMS to correct its errors.
