By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News | October 28, 2016 | This KHN story also ran in 
The federal government is temporarily blocking more health insurance companies from automatically moving customers who become eligible for Medicare into Medicare Advantage plans while officials review the controversial practice.
They also will issue rules soon for plans that already have permission to make these switches, known as “seamless conversion,” according to a memo from Michael Crochu
nis, acting director of the Medicare Enrollment and Appeals Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Under current rules, an insurer can transfer customers who have purchased policies through an Affordable Care Act insurance exchange or other commercial plans when they become eligible for Medicare, typically at age 65. An insurer must give an individual 60 days’ advance written notice of the switch; if a person doesn’t opt out, that enrollment takes effect automatically.
… The decision to prohibit additional insurers from pursuing Medicare Advantage conversions comes after Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post identified problems with the practice in July. Some seniors did not know they had different coverage until receiving out-of-network providers’ bills for thousands of dollars. Others got the news when they received a Medicare Advantage membership card they hadn’t requested — with the name of a new primary care doctor they didn’t know. [Continued in Kaiser Health News and The Washington Post]