The government isn't expending much effort on signups for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but the same can't be said for its e-mails urging seniors to sign up for private Medicare Advantage plans.

The New York Times reports that enrollment is substantially up in the latter plans, from 28 percent of the 60 million Medicare beneficiaries five years ago to nearly 37 percent this year—according to administration predictions.

E-mail messages that say in small print that they were “created and distributed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services” have been sent to people who “signed up for email updates from the Medicare team” extol the virtues of Medicare Advantage plans with such subject lines as “Get more benefits for your money,” and “See if you can save money with Medicare Advantage.”

NYT writes, “The messages—'paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services'—urge beneficiaries to 'check out Medicare Advantage'and point to an online tool, the Medicare plan finder, to compare the different options.”

Yet others have provided messages including, “You may be able to lower your out-of-pocket costs while getting extra benefits, like vision, hearing, dental and prescription coverage,” and “With Medicare Advantage, one plan covers all of your care.”

Although Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said CMS did not favor private plans over original Medicare, others aren't so sure. Richard S. Foster, who formerly served for many years as the nonpartisan chief actuary of the Medicare program, told NYT the e-mails were “more like Medicare Advantage plan advertising than objective information from a public agency.”

“The statements made in the emails are generally accurate, but they are one-sided,” he added. ”The advantages of M.A. plans are emphasized, while the disadvantages are not mentioned.”

One thing not mentioned is the fact that private plans usually restrict beneficiaries to a specific network of providers or have to pay more for services outside the network—something traditional Medicare does not do.

In addition, Jo Murphy, who has counseled thousands of Medicare beneficiaries as the director of Michigan's State Health Insurance Assistance Program, told NYT, “It seems that there are a whole lot of promotional e-mails coming from the federal government. There does seem to be encouragement to go to Medicare Advantage, part of a trend favoring private companies over traditional Medicare, for whatever reason.”

And Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut have written to the administration “expressing concern that officials were 'inappropriately working to steer Medicare beneficiaries to Medicare Advantage plans,'” according to NYT. It quotes the letter saying that the agency is obligated to “provide beneficiaries with accurate information from a neutral, balanced perspective.” The letter was signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Christopher S. Murphy and Representative Rosa DeLauro, among others.

NYT says that although many Medicare beneficiaries have been gravitating toward such plans, “researchers have found that patients in poor health are somewhat more likely than others to disenroll from Medicare Advantage and switch to traditional Medicare.”

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