Strengthen Equitable Relief

Limited avenues for relief are available to those who make mistakes when enrolling in Medicare. Specifically, beneficiaries facing lifetime penalties and gaps in coverage can only remedy their situation if they can prove that an agent of the federal government misinformed them about enrollment rules. Yet many people turn to their employer or health plan—not a federal agency—when transitioning to Medicare. To provide adequate recourse for those who make honest enrollment mistakes, Congress should expand equitable relief to include misinformation from non-federal sources, such as employers, employer-sponsored or individual market health plans, and insurance brokers.