More than 300 marketing and sales professionals gathered in Las Vegas for this year’s Medicare Marketing & Sales Summit, to collaborate and shape the next generation of Medicare Advantage marketing, sales, and member experience. Here are highlights from this morning’s sessions:
Welcome remarks: Insights from recent research on Medicare shopping and switching
Conference chair Craig Blake, who oversees agency growth at Amsive Health, set the stage for the conference by acknowledging the challenges the Medicare Advantage industry has faced this year. including cutting benefits, terminating plans, and changing product lines. It’s also been difficult for the seniors they serve, he said, noting recent Deft Research, which found:
- Seniors who switched plans hit a 10-year high. One in eight seniors had to change plans this year, a 24 percent switching rate and a six-point increase from last year.
- Seventy-eight percent of seniors report anxiety when shopping for or switching Medicare plans—a new and notable metric that Deft added to the annual research
Blake urged attendees to think about that 78 percent anxiety metric as they build their marketing and sales strategies for the upcoming year.
“Let's be sensitive to the journey they've been on and compassionate to the changes. Because two things matter most to seniors. Number one is their money. Number two, health, their individual health, and the insurance that they choose.
The conference, he said, provides an opportunity to exchange ideas with professionals from other plans about what’s working in the market and what benefits are resonating with members.
Overview of CMS regulations and policy outlook
Next, Neil Patil, senior fellow and policy director, Medicare Policy Initiative at Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reform (CHIR), provided an overview of current, upcoming, and proposed regulatory changes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Among the areas, Medicare marketing and sales professionals should watch:
Finalized and proposed Medicare Advantage policy changes
For 2026, CMS finalized:
- Tighter prior authorization rules limiting when plans can reopen inpatient admissions and ensuring appeals rights apply regardless of timing.
- Codification of non‑allowable supplemental benefits (e.g., non‑healthy foods, alcohol, tobacco) under SSBCI programs
For 2027, CMS has proposed significant deregulatory shifts:
- Tighter prior authorization rules limiting when plans can reopen inpatient admissions and ensuring appeals rights apply regardless of timing.
- Codification of non‑allowable supplemental benefits (e.g., non‑healthy foods, alcohol, tobacco) under SSBCI programs.
- Expanded special enrollment period (SEP) access after provider network changes, removing the requirement for CMS to first deem the change “significant.”
- Relaxed marketing rules, including removal of certain disclaimers (such as state SHIP references) and elimination of several outreach restrictions — e.g., 48‑hour cooling‑off periods and proximity restrictions between marketing and educational events.
- Allowing superlatives (“best plan,” etc.) in marketing even without substantiating data, provided information is not misleading.
- Shortened the requirement for retaining marketing and sales call recordings from 10 years to six years.
Star ratings overhaul (proposed) for 2027
- CMS proposed removing 12 measures to streamline the system and align with the “universal foundation,” noting that many measures no longer show meaningful performance variation.
- Removing some prior authorization–related measures has raised concerns because beneficiaries often rely on them to compare plans.
- Proposed removal of the health equity index reward (excellent health outcomes for all measures) with CMS asserting that equity improvements will still occur through other measures.
- A new depression screening and follow‑up measure would track screening rates and timely follow‑up care.
- CMS anticipates slight decreases in overall Star ratings, with 25 percent of plans dropping by a half‑star. However, slightly more plans would see increases in quality bonus payments than decreases.
Legislative update: Provider directory accuracy (beginning 2028)
Patil also provided an overview of the provider directory provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, that was recently signed into law:
- Plans must perform 90-day verification of every provider directory element and remove inaccurate listings within five days.
- Enrollees misled by inaccurate directories must be charged in‑network cost‑sharing even if services were delivered by out‑of‑network providers.
- CMS will begin publishing accuracy scores for each plan starting in 2028 based on reported verification results.
The science of aging and the future of longevity
Keynote S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., emeritus professor of public health at the University of Illinois Chicago, delivered a compelling session on aging, health, and longetivity.
Olshansky began by outlining how life expectancy rose dramatically over the past century—from about 39 years in 1860 to roughly 80 today.
He emphasized that the natural human lifespan without medical intervention ranges between 30 and 60 years, meaning most people living beyond age 60 are benefiting from what he calls “manufactured time” created by medical advances.
Despite major gains, he noted that pushing average life expectancy to 100 would require eliminating approximately 85 percent of all deaths. Even curing major diseases would yield only modest increases: curing cancer would add about 3.5 years, and eliminating cardiovascular disease would add four to four and a half years. These limits, he argued, illustrate that treating individual diseases cannot meaningfully extend the human lifespan because the underlying biological process of aging continues regardless.
Olshansky called for a new public health model focused on targeting aging itself. Since aging outpaces traditional risk factors for conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, gains from disease-specific interventions will continue to diminish unless aging is addressed directly.
He also highlighted the significance of slowing biological aging. A modest three-year delay, for example, would mean a 70-year-old experiences the health risks of a 67-year-old—an improvement with an estimated economic value of $7.1 trillion over 50 years.
Olshansky pointed to growing support for clinical trials of therapeutics aimed at slowing biological aging. The Food and Drug Administrtion has shown receptivity to the concept, and metformin has been proposed as an initial candidate because of its long safety record and data showing longer survival among people with diabetes who take it. He added that GLP 1 drugs could also play a future role, noting their potential to reduce body fat and lower cardiovascular and cancer risk. However, he said, studies are still needed to determine whether they also slow biological aging.
Inside the member experience
The morning sessions concluded with a panel of patient advocates who shared their lived experiences navigating complex health needs and health plan systems.
Roderick Kersch, vice president of health plan sales at WEX Benefits, spoke with Doris Maldonado Méndez, Connie Montgomery, and Karen Edwards. Their stories highlight gaps in trust, communication, plan selection, and ongoing member support.
Maldonado Méndez discussed her lifelong disabilities, multiple invisible conditions, and decades of experience with Medicare. She emphasized that trust is fundamental to her survival, describing a recent coverage lapse in which she was disenrolled from her Medicare Advantage plan without notice and enrolled in a plan that did not meet her needs. The disruption jeopardized her health as well as her ability to care for her medically complex children.
Montgomery spoke about juggling rare disorders and chronic conditions while also serving as a caregiver for two siblings. She stressed the need for brokers and agents to understand the full context of a member’s medical and personal responsibilities. She also recounted significant financial strain when her sibling required long‑term care not covered by the selected plan, underscoring the importance of knowledgeable guidance and compassionate plan design.
She advocated for stronger harm‑reduction training, better listening skills, and the use of patient navigators or chief patient officers.
Edwards, a kidney transplant recipient and public health professional, underscored that kindness and communication are essential components of member experience.
She urged health plans to consider the entire lifespan of patients, maintain year‑round engagement—not just during enrollment—.
and partner with community organizations to address social determinants of health. She also pointed to broader demographic trends, including growth in Medicaid e‑learning participation and increased enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans