U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have requested answers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding problems with the launch of a new Medicare Advantage provider-directory tool. The senators sent a letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of CMS, expressing concern that the directory contains inaccurate, conflicting, and duplicate information that could mislead seniors during open enrollment.
“While we appreciate CMS’s stated intent to help enrollees more easily navigate and choose a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, we are concerned that this rushed rollout will mislead millions of seniors as they compare plans, and may cause seniors and people with disabilities to incur medical bills they reasonably believed would be covered,” wrote Merkley and Wyden.
The senators noted that the rollout was led by an acting administrator from DOGE embedded at CMS who is also overseeing the national directory initiative. They stated: “The rollout was driven not by career CMS staff but by the acting administrator of DOGE currently embedded at CMS who is also leading the administration’s broader national directory initiative. The directory tool—intended to help beneficiaries identify in-network providers—has been found to list some providers as both in-network and out-of-network or to display contradictory information across plan pages.”
Merkley and Wyden highlighted ongoing efforts to hold Dr. Oz and CMS accountable on related issues, including recent calls for clarity on Medicaid protections for children, seniors, and people with disabilities amid changes brought about by health care reforms.
In their letter, Merkley and Wyden described how choosing among nearly 34 million available MA plans can already be confusing for seniors. They referenced research showing that many enrollees struggle with complex choices in Medicare insurance markets; often failing to select more cost-effective or comprehensive plans, especially those with lower cognitive ability who may remain in suboptimal coverage.
They explained that instead of creating a full national directory as initially planned, CMS released a temporary version limited to Medicare Advantage using data from one vendor, SunFire Matrix. This reliance on a single data source has resulted in inaccuracies within the tool.
The senators also raised concerns about communication: while Medicare Advantage Organizations were notified that beneficiaries could change plans if affected by network misinformation within three months, there was no similar notice given directly to enrollees nor clear guidance on how errors could be remedied.
Merkley and Wyden asked Dr. Oz for information on what steps will be taken during open enrollment to prevent further confusion or harm due to these issues.
“We look forward to your timely response and to learning what steps CMS will take to prevent further confusion and harm to beneficiaries during this enrollment period,” they concluded.
