Compliance with the 2020 Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines (MCMGs) is a priority for every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan. CMS first released a redlined draft of the 2020 MCMGs on March 21, 2019. On August 6, 2019, CMS issued an HPMS memorandum summarizing the final changes to the MCMGs for the 2020 contract year. Strategic Health Law has confirmed with CMS that the August 6 HPMS memo includes all of the updates that are to be incorporated into the MCMGs for 2020. For convenience, Strategic Health Law has prepared an unofficial redline of the 2019 MCMGs reflecting the revisions for 2020, a copy of which is available on our website.

Examples of changes to the MCMGs for 2020 include:

• Removing the requirement that plans may only advertise in their defined service area (Section 40);
• Specifying that plans are permitted to include general information about enrollment periods, including the Open Enrollment Period, on their websites (Section 40.7);
• Allowing plans to provide access to required disclaimers on their websites through a hyperlink (Section 70.1.1);
• Clarifying that plans must submit their websites with marketing content to CMS on an annual basis and include a material ID for the current year on all pages (Section 90); and
• Removing several previously required disclaimers, including the Federal Contracting Statement requirements for communications materials (Appendix 2).

To make compliance with the MCMGs even easier and more efficient, Strategic Health Law has also created a Marketing Review Toolkit for MA and Part D plans to use in reviewing marketing and communications materials for compliance. If you have questions about or are interested in purchasing the Toolkit — or could benefit from compliance support — please reach out to Strategic Health Law for more information.