Medicare beneficiaries are facing an increasingly complex health insurance landscape. Each year brings new plan designs, regulatory changes, and market shifts that make informed decision-making more challenging, especially for older Americans navigating coverage options that directly affect their health, finances, and peace of mind.

That is why NAIFA has submitted a comprehensive comment letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to its proposed Contract Year 2027 Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D rule and Medicare Cost Plan Program. NAIFA’s recommendations reflect decades of real-world experience from professionals who work directly with beneficiaries every day, helping them make sense of their options and avoid costly mistakes.

At its core, NAIFA’s message to CMS is simple: strong consumer protections work best when they preserve access to professional guidance, reflect how beneficiaries actually engage today, and target real risks rather than imposing one-size-fits-all rules.

I. Clarify the Role of Third-Party Marketing Organizations

One of NAIFA’s most significant recommendations is to refine how CMS defines and regulates Third-Party Marketing Organizations (TPMOs). The current definition groups together very different entities, from individual agents to large call centers, under the same regulatory framework.

NAIFA urges CMS to recognize these distinctions and adopt a more tailored approach that differentiates professional agents, field marketing organizations, call centers, and lead-generation firms. Doing so would allow CMS and Medicare Advantage organizations to focus oversight where risk is highest, while preserving the ability of licensed agents to provide personalized, ethical guidance to beneficiaries who rely on trusted relationships.

II. Modernize the Scope of Appointment Process

The Scope of Appointment (SOA) is intended to protect beneficiaries from unwanted or high-pressure sales tactics. NAIFA supports that goal. However, we caution CMS that certain interpretations of the SOA rules could unintentionally reduce access to help.

In our letter, NAIFA recommends that CMS:

• Explicitly allow electronic SOAs, reflecting how today’s beneficiaries communicate and manage records.
• Ensure SOAs remain valid for their full 12-month period regardless of plan year changes.
• Empower beneficiaries to control the duration of their authorization with a trusted agent.
• Require basic identifying information on SOAs to prevent misuse or confusion.

III. Right-Size Call Recording Retention Requirements

Call recording is an important consumer protection, and NAIFA strongly supports its continued use. However, the current 10-year retention requirement creates unnecessary costs, cybersecurity risks, and compliance burdens, particularly for smaller agencies, without providing meaningful additional protection.

NAIFA recommends reducing the retention period to three years, which aligns with when complaints and compliance issues are most likely to arise. This approach maintains strong safeguards for beneficiaries while eliminating wasteful regulatory excess that ultimately drives up costs across the system.

IV. Improve Special Enrollment Period Notifications

NAIFA supports CMS’s proposal to streamline Special Enrollment Periods (SEPs) when providers leave a plan’s network. Beneficiaries should receive timely, clear information about their rights when their access to care is disrupted.

We encourage CMS to go one step further by allowing documentation of provider termination notices as proof of SEP eligibility. This added safeguard would help prevent abuse of SEPs while ensuring beneficiaries who truly need flexibility can access it quickly.

V. Expand Access Through Smarter Event Rules

Finally, NAIFA supports CMS’s proposal to ease restrictions that prevent marketing events from occurring shortly after educational events at the same location. For many beneficiaries, especially those with transportation or mobility challenges, the ability to attend both on the same day is not a convenience, but a necessity.

Maintaining clear distinctions between education and marketing while allowing flexibility respects beneficiary choice and improves access to professional guidance without compromising protections.

A Path Forward That Works

NAIFA appreciates CMS’s willingness to reevaluate existing rules and engage stakeholders, and our recommendations are rooted in a clear principle: protecting beneficiaries should not come at the expense of access to trusted professional guidance.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with CMS, not only through the formal comment process but also through active participation in the new quarterly Medicare meetings with the Agent/Broker Trade Associations where NAIFA will be represented by NAIFA members Bryan Keevan of AmeriLife, Craig Ritter of Ritter Insurance Marketing and Managing Partner at Integrity, and Josh Slattery of The Brokerage, Inc. NAIFA staff members Mike Hedge and Roger Moore also will participate.