Helaine Fingold Quoted in “New Marketing Guidelines Contain More Tweaks than Major Changes”

In addition, CMS made some clarifications around plans’ characterization of star ratings, including incorporating a written or graphical reference making it clear that the rating is “__out of five (5) stars.” And sponsors with multiple contracts that do not have the same overall rating across all contracts may not produce or distribute materials “in a way that implies that all of their contracts achieved the same rating,” added CMS. “This would likely prohibit a plan from promoting itself as a ‘5-star plan’ in marketing materials for plan contracts that achieved less than 5 stars, even if the plan does have one or more contracts that achieved a five star rating,” observes Fingold. Moreover, plans “must be clear regarding the rating for each contract identified in the material.”