Joanne:  Between flooded mailboxes, phones ringing nonstop, and TV shows being interrupted by past celebrities telling you that you're missing out on Medicare benefits, making your transition to Medicare or changing plans can seem more overwhelming than ever before. In this episode, we will discuss current Medicare advertisements and talk about recent reports. Upcoming changes and what you can do to protect yourself. 

Cameron: But before we start, my name is Cameron Giardini and together with my co-host Joanne Giardini Russell, we operate Giardini Medicare, which is an independent insurance agency based out of Southeast Michigan. Although we are based in Michigan, we work virtually over the phone to directly help consumers in about 13 states to find the right Medicare coverage for them.

If we do not work in your state, we will connect you with another trusted independent agent who will be able to help you find the coverage you want. We also now have a free online course available for you that you can register for to learn more about many Medicare topics, and you can access that by going online to gmedcourse.com. 

Joanne: We're going to start with an overview of today's show. We'll be talking about Medicare marketing trends and an overview of that. We'll be giving you some tips for avoiding the misleading advertisements. We'll talk about Medicare consumers, and the thoughts, the opinions that they have on the current advertising landscape.

We'll discuss recent changes and proposals to reduce misleading advertisements, and then we'll recap everything at the end, of course.  

Cameron: and this episode, it comes from just being done with the fall annual election period, when, of course, everything is at a fever pitch when it comes to advertisements and just talking about Medicare.

So this time of year, after the holidays, we'd like to reflect a little bit on the trends of what we're seeing in the advertisement world when it comes to Medicare. So we figured we'd start the year with this episode. So first current Medicare advertisement statistics overall, the plans that you see being advertised They're Medicare Advantage plans, and very rarely are they going to be Medicare supplement plans, which we call Medigap plans.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2022, during the annual election period that I just mentioned, over 86 percent of advertisements were for Medicare Advantage plans. With only 1.2 percent advertising just Medicare supplements. One of the reasons for increased advertisements is because of the increased number of Medicare Advantage plan offerings and larger enrollment numbers than ever before when it comes to Medicare Advantage plans.

Also, there is just more money out there in the Medicare Advantage space, and more companies vying for your attention, of course, means more advertisements. Again, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2024, the average Medicare beneficiary can choose from 43 Medicare Advantage plans. This is compared to just 28 plans in 2020.

In 2024, 58 percent of consumers have access to at least eight different insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans compared to just 29 percent five years ago in 2019. So again, with a huge increase of offerings and insurance companies offering plans, of course, they're going to try to get your attention and each of them has to advertise separately.

So it all results in more advertisements that you see this time of year during the fall. Also, as we mentioned, money in the system is a big contributing factor to this. According to a 2023 report to Congress from the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, which is also known as MedPAC, in 2022, Medicare Advantage plans, received at least 403 billion in payments from the federal government.

So that's money going from the federal government. Two insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage plans. And then lastly, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2023. More than half of Medicare beneficiaries with both Part A and Part B are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, and this enrollment has doubled since 2010.

This marks the first time that Medicare Advantage enrollments have actually reached that 50 percent mark or higher, and from 2022 to 2023, Medicare Advantage enrollment grew rapidly by 8%, just like years before, and the Congressional Budget Office even projects that Medicare Advantage enrollment will reach up to 62 percent of consumers by 2033.

So again, all of that is to say, the more money in the system, the more plans vying for your attention, the more advertisements are going to happen. Those are just crazy numbers though. Yeah, they are.

Joanne: Let's flip over to the Kaiser Family Foundation study on Medicare advertisements.

So Kaiser analyzed 1,267 unique TV ads that aired 643,852 times from October 1st, 2022. until December 7th, 2022. Just think how crazy high that number is. 643,000 times. And many of these ads are focusing on extra benefits and what you're missing out on, things like that. The ads are promising lower Part B premiums or higher Social Security checks.

That was a very common source of the complaints. In 2023, just 17 percent of Medicare Advantage plans offered a Part B premium reduction, but the advertisements were found showing this benefit in locations where these plans were not even available. So, in our experience, the plans that are offering the Part B reductions typically have reduced benefits in another aspect of the plan, such as no prescription coverage or perhaps higher co-pays.

Now, 50,000 Medicare Advantage ads suggest people with Medicare that they're just missing out. They're missing out on the benefits and some ads are telling viewers that they're entitled to all these extra benefits. You've seen the commercials. More than 90 percent of the ads promoted extra benefits such as dental.

vision and hearing and 85 percent of the ads were promoting low-cost plans like zero per month premium and zero copays. Now remember, you still have to pay your Part B premium to the federal government if you do enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan

Cameron: and you will certainly have co-pays with those plans as well. Absolutely. 

Joanne: Now, 20 percent of the ads, were promoting food or grocery allowances. Remember that you're seeing all the food budgets or our spending cards often called flex cards. Now we get this question a lot. So people do ask us, are flex cards real?

Now they are real. They are mostly common for those people who are enrolled in dual eligible plans, meaning they are entitled to both Medicare and Medicaid. And these are. different plans that typically offer the flex cards. So yes, they are real, but you may not always qualify. These can be very good benefits for the people who do qualify, but they're often greatly exaggerated for the advertisements since they're good attention grabbers.

And we know it works because we had that question quite a bit in the fall. So here are our thoughts about all this, these statistics. In 2024, 99 percent of people have access to a Medicare Advantage plan with a zero-dollar premium per month. 97 percent or more Medicare Advantage plans offer extra benefits like you see advertised.

So in reality, you aren't missing out on the secret Medicare benefits. So instead of feeling like you're missing out, just speak with an independent broker familiar with your area to learn what Medicare Advantage plans actually will cover in your state in your county. 

Cameron: And that is probably the most important thing to remember when it comes to all of this is to figure out what's available to you to cut through a lot of the noise from the advertisements.

 And I'm going to keep breaking down the study here from Kaiser. It's just really good, I think, to see what they see in the data. And then we'll, of course, put our spin on things and tell you kind of what we think of the different topics that they mentioned. So according to Kaiser ads from non-government entities, try to trick consumers by appearing official.

like Joanne mentioned, you have probably seen these advertisements. They'll be red, white, and blue. They'll have Medicare helplines, whatever it may be. They're trying to appear somewhat related to the federal government. According to them, 73 percent of ads were from insurance companies and 21 percent were from third parties.

Think of the Joe Namath commercials when it comes to those. And only 3 percent were from the actual government. So again, all of them are trying to look official, but only 3 percent are from the actual government itself. Now, 27 percent of Medicare Advantage ads, used the red, white, and blue Medicare card in their advertisements, and 16 percent urged people to call Medicare helplines that had no affiliation with Medicare.

Third parties, as we mentioned, were the 21 percent of advertisements, They were the main Medicare hotline offender, so to say, with 83 percent of third-party ads mentioning some type of Medicare hotline, which again is not affiliated with Medicare. And only 1 percent of third-party ads mentioned the real 1-800 Medicare number.

So overall, our thoughts about what these findings are is that it's important to remember that essentially none of the commercials you see are from Medicare. If you can just remember that, you're far ahead and you will be able to tune out a lot of these again. None of them are from Medicare, at least a small percentage.

So, 1-800 Medicare is the only phone number associated with actual Medicare. So, if you are being told to call a different number as a Medicare hotline, it's just deceptive third-party marketing. These ads, include small disclaimers at the bottom, saying that they aren't affiliated with the government.

This may seem obvious to many people. We always hear people say, Well, Why would you fall for that? Or, you know, it's, of course, it says right there, non-government entity. But in reality, many people still get tricked by these ads or they wouldn't even exist in the first place. As a reminder, Medicare and Social Security, are never going to call you.

So also avoid any phone call where someone claims to be affiliated with Social Security or Medicare, if they're calling you out of the blue. So now we'll shift a little bit and talk about additional advertising techniques from independent brokers. So independent brokers could be like ourselves.

They could be large entities with hundreds of agents, but basically, it's just independent brokers that are not direct employees of Medicare, not direct employees of insurance companies, that kind of thing. So the Kaiser family foundation study that we mentioned, placed a heavy focus on. televised ads, but these ads are mostly created by large publicly traded companies with very large call centers that likely care about their shareholders way more than their clients.

These are not a reflection of the thousands of good independent brokers that exist with that being said, if you are close to Medicare eligibility, you know, that TV ads are just. The start when it comes to advertisements. So what about the other ads that exist that are created by smaller independent brokers, like possibly ourselves or others in the industry?

So another possible technique or advertising tactic that a lot of brokers use is the mail. there are generally two types of mail that will fill your mailbox from age 64 plus, and unfortunately maybe even earlier than age 64. These will be postcards that show the brand of a local insurance agency promoting their services or a generic postcard saying that you're entitled to extra benefits.

And they'll ask you to write your name and phone number to mail it back to get these benefits. So if you get this mail, what should you do? Well, do not fill out any generic postcards. That is a must. Don't do that. There's no reason for your response. It's just going to be sold to a random broker who will then call you to sell your plans.

The problem is you have no idea who the broker will be, and their experience and expertise can vary greatly. They might be a good broker, but you just simply won't know that by filling out the generic postcard. Now branded mailers, on the other hand, could be a good way to connect with a broker in your area.

Just make sure with everything that you check to make sure that they're advertising the company they're with and check their online website and reviews before contacting them. For example, we do send out mailers to people. We don't do a large amount, but we do them locally in Michigan and it has our name on it.

So you can see it's Giardini Medicare. It shows what we offer. It just invites people to call us if they feel like it. You can look us up online, but it's very clear who we are. It's not some generic postcard saying, Hey, don't miss out on your grocery benefits. So that's always important when you're looking at these kinds of things.

And then another tactic that a lot of people use is seminars and webinars. So we often didn't do webinars to attract clients. We like that strategy because we can teach a lot of things and people like to learn frankly, when it comes to Medicare. But for many agents, seminars are becoming very popular to host in person.

So if you see a postcard or an ad, that's offering a free dinner and a Medicare one on one presentation, basically they're just advertising a Medicare seminar. These are likely hosted by independent brokers in your community. And what you should know about them is that attending seminars and webinars, is pretty low risk and it can be a great way to learn about your Medicare options.

Just know that these will generally be educational. It's mostly going to be an overview of Medicare Advantage or Medicare Supplements, and you're not going to learn specific plan options there. You know, which specific Medicare Advantage plan is right for you or which specific Medigap. But generally, we do recommend avoiding seminars that are only pushing one plan like that and maybe are hosted by one insurance company.

Joanne: To me, webinars are great because you can just privately in the Yeah. 

Cameron: I always think webinars are good. I mean, even better. It's not like walking out. Yeah. We think videos are, you know, anything where you can do it, where you're not going to be hassled. Right. If you sign up for a webinar, you might have to put an email in, so be aware of that.

But for the most part, it's a, it's a good low-risk way of learning about Medicare options

Joanne: Right, and that kind of transfers over to our topic here is social media in terms of advertising. So, again, this is not someone that's going to bug you, but social media, Facebook ads, for example, they're very popular for independent brokers and agencies of all sizes to use those and they pay for those.

So we've even made our own in the past. Unfortunately, well, we don't use it very much, but these ads can range from truthful to So many of the ads focus on giving you free groceries and money from the government, but please avoid any of those types of ads. So what you should know related to social media is if you Google the Facebook ads library and then search for ads using the word Medicare, you're actually going to see thousands of current Facebook ads and you can even search your specific state for ads in your area.

So the key is to check on the name of the company doing the ad. So if it's a generic name like Medicare Plans USA. Avoid it. Just move on. Ignore it. If it's a legitimate company with reviews and you can find them, they might be worth contacting. So you can also change your age on Facebook. Pretend you're an 18-year-old and maybe you'll stop getting those ads.

Cameron: Yeah, maybe not 18. Maybe 50. 

Joanne: You're still probably gonna get those ads at 50 though. there's another tactic that agents do in terms of marketing and it's door knocking. It's illegal for brokers to show up to your house to try and sell you a Medicare Advantage plan.

But, this doesn't stop some brokers from doing this and they say that they're coming to you instead saying we're offering Medicare supplement plans and that is okay and that is legal to do, but they are hoping that you will just ask them about Medicare Advantage plans so that they can pivot the conversation and talk about Medicare Advantage that way, which is It's technically legal, but it's not quite the kosher way to get in there.

Cameron: Like Joanne was saying in that circumstance, again, basically they're going to your house and they say, we're offering Medicare supplement help for people. And then you say, okay, well, what about Medicare Advantage plans? I've also heard about those. You saying that means that they were not soliciting you for Medicare Advantage plans.

They just happened to ask you questions about Medicare. then Medicare Advantage plans were brought up. So that's a way to trick people into talking about both and getting into your door that way. But I would just say, yeah, it's imagine that exactly. So Joanne can tell you what to know about this though, as far as methods go.

Joanne: Yeah, here is how you can prevent them from coming to your doorstep. So as brokers, we have. software that we could show you that's pretty creepy, and it does show, it's a Google map. So you know the little red bubble that isolates your location or a place you're going to? So we can use that same map, and it will show all of the turning 65 folks in a five-mile radius, for example.

And when we hover over that little red bubble, if I did that at my house, it would light up with hundreds of people in my area, and if I click on that little bubble and hover, Up will pop John Smith turning 65 on March 18th of next year and then his phone number and the address. So, long story short, if someone shows up at your door talking about Medicare, just don't answer or tell them that you already have a broker.

Tell them you're all done. You've made your plan selection. You don't need any help. The last tactic used by brokers is just phones and phone calls. So there are many tactics that brokers can use to call you to solicit products. They may cold call you, hire telemarketers to transfer calls to you, and then transfer the call to them.

Don't answer your phone if you don't know the number. And that kind of can sum up a lot of what I always say to the consumer, is that the power resides with you being informed and identifying some of this misleading advertising and don't engage Essentially don't answer the phone.

Don't click on the ad Don't call the Joe Namath commercials because if they didn't work, they wouldn't be doing them. So always just remember that 

Cameron: This brings us perfectly into what we're going to talk about, which is tips for avoiding the misleading advertisements and marketing that we've discussed.

Avoiding misleading ads, it's not just important to make sure you don't get the wrong Medicare coverage, but the fewer people that respond to misleading advertisements, Less of them will be made. Remember these ads, only exist because they work. Chances are, if you are listening to this podcast, of course, you won't fall for any of the marketing we have talked about, but you likely know someone in your life who isn't as well informed and therefore might be more vulnerable.

So what you can do, here's a couple. Steps or tips. Number one is to connect with a broker or another trusted independent source of Medicare information. Start by getting a referral if possible from friends, family, financial advisors, or whoever it might be, or you can always email us and we can connect you with one in your state.

No, there are no secret plans available. This is number two. You can find all of the Medicare Advantage plans offered in your county by using the Medicare.gov website. We have YouTube videos showing exactly how also know that if somebody is promising to give you extra benefits, it just means that they're going to be changing your existing coverage in some way.

They're not going to add additional benefits to what you have without making you change plans. For the most part. Number three, avoid daytime television like Dr. Phil. I'm joking about specifically Dr. Phil, but the Kaiser Family Foundation study did find that regular Dr. Phil viewers saw 404 Medicare ads, which was eight ads per day during the annual election period.

But in general, just ignore or mute any TV commercial. It's always a good way to go about it. If one does catch your attention, you can always make note of the benefits that you want to ask a broker about and see if any plans in your area offer it. So if one says we offer X amount of dental benefits, feel free to write that down and then just ask a broker and get a referral and say, is this real, and which plan is offering it?

Number four, do not ever put your phone number in an online form, promising quotes or benefits. And do not fill out information requests from generic pieces of mail saying you're missing out or entitled to extra benefits. And then last but not least, you can add yourself to the Do Not Call Registry. With smartphones, you may also be able to block calls that are not part of your contact list.

I know with the iPhone, you can go to settings, you can select phone, and then basically silence unknown callers. So whatever method you want to use to get the phone to stop ringing, try something at least, hopefully, that helps. And now Joanne can end things here by talking about consumer opinions about these Medicare advertisements to get what your peers are thinking.

Joanne: During the annual election period, we often hear complaints almost every single day from our clients and about how overwhelming, confusing Medicare advertisements are. And they are. So as a reminder, you're not alone. Kaiser Family Foundation did focus groups with consumers in 2022 talking about what they think about Medicare marketing and here are some of the results from that.

Nearly everyone saw the ads promoting Medicare Advantage plans, but many were confused by the ad sponsors and felt that the ads appeared to be government-sponsored, but they believed that private insurance companies were sponsoring the ads. Many consumers reported aggressive tactics like frequent unsolicited phone calls using pretty deceitful tactics, but luckily many did report.

Ignoring the calls, also. Many of the focus group participants felt inundated by the ads and found them really off-putting, misleading, and not very helpful. And some people even reported that the ads were a joke to them, is what they quoted. Most did say that the ads did not influence their plan selections, so that's probably a good thing.

Many participants in the focus groups also said choosing their coverage was overwhelming, and therefore they did rely on an independent broker, which is great. Some did try to find plans on their own but said the process was very challenging. Most participants who do use a broker also reported that their broker did receive commissions for enrolling them in a plan that didn't bother them at all.

So, overall, most were very relieved to get on Medicare and they were satisfied with their coverage choices. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very satisfied, most participants gave their coverage a score of 8, 9, or 10. 

Cameron: Which is great. Yeah, exactly. Steps are being taken to stop some of these misleading advertisements.

There have been more complaints than ever when it comes to the advertisements and the marketing tactics that we have talked about. In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare beneficiary complaints increased from less than 16,000 in 2020 to nearly 40,000 in just the first 11 months of 2021.

So there has been a huge uptick. There are regulations on the back end that are being implemented to hopefully curb some of these shady marketing tactics, whatever you would like to call them. But we don't have a lot of faith in them working immediately. Hopefully, in the future they do, but for now, just use the steps we talked about in this episode, and hopefully, you can avoid some of the pitfalls that we see with marketing around Medicare and transitioning to Medicare.

It can be overwhelming and being bombarded by misleading advertisements. Trying to trick you into feeling like you're missing out on something. It doesn't help. We hope this episode has at least shed some light on these shady advertisements in the Medicare space. And we hope you will be able to work with a trusted independent broker.

So you can cut out all the noise and find the coverage that works for you. As always, please leave us a review on your podcast app and subscribe to our podcast so you can listen to future episodes. You can also find more Medicare content from us by going to YouTube and searching Giardini Medicare, and you can also do the same on TikTok.

Also, if you want to schedule a one-on-one phone call with us, you can do so by going online to our website at gmedicareteam.com. Last but not least, if you want to send us any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to info at gmedicareteam.com. But thank you for listening and have a great day.