People representing Medicare plans aren’t allowed to:
- Ask for your personal information (like bank account or credit card numbers) over the phone unless it’s needed to process an enrollment request. Plans don’t need your personal information to give a quote.
- Come to your home uninvited to sell or endorse anything.
- Call you unless you’re already a member of the plan or you’ve given them permission to contact you. If you’re a member, the agent who helped you join can call you.
- Require you to speak to a sales agent to get information about the plan.
- Offer you cash (or gifts worth more than $15) to join their plan or give you free meals during a sales pitch for a Medicare health or drug plan.
- Ask you for payment over the phone or online. The plan must send you a bill.
- Tell you that they’re Medicare supplement insurance (Medigap) policies.
- Sell you a non-health related product, like an annuity or life insurance policy, during a sales pitch for a Medicare health or drug plan.
- Make an appointment to tell you about their plan unless you agree. During the appointment, they can only try to sell you the products you agreed to hear about.
- Talk to you about their plan in areas where you get health care like an exam room, hospital patient room, or at a pharmacy counter.
- Market their plans or enroll you during an educational event like a health fair or conference.
- Advertise to you without using specific plan names.
- Advertise to you using confusing words or images, or misleading Medicare logos.
Independent agents and brokers selling plans must be licensed by the state, and the plan must tell the state which agents are selling their plans. ARTICLE