By Susan Jaffe | April 8, 2014, 5:46 pm 
Connecticut Health Investigative Team and The Hartford Courant
UnitedHealthcare’s decision last fall to drop thousands of doctors from its Medicare Advantage plans in Connecticut and across the country has spurred Medicare officials to improve protections for seniors who lose their doctors.The new measures were announced late Monday along with a slight increase in next year’s payment rates to Medicare Advantage insurers who provide policies as an alternative to the traditional government-run Medicare program.
Nearly 16 million older Americans have enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, including more than 147,000 in Connecticut, 
which requires members to get treatment only from a network of health care providers. They cannot change plans during the year if their doctor leaves their network….
“I doubt that CMS would have given this as much attention without patients, providers and advocates demonstrating how deep and broad the effect was and how much pain and anguish it caused,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. CONTINUED in Connecticut Health Investigative Team CONTINUED in The Courant