“In February, HEALTH CARE un-covered published a deep dive into Blue Lantern Health, which before that was Benefytt, and before that Health Insurance Innovations. The firm, owned by Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm with close ties to former White House chief of staff and current ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, exited bankruptcy in September to then run thousands of misleading ads,” Matthew Cunningham-Cook writes over at Health Care Un-Covered. “The ads during Medicare Advantage open enrollment featured football Hall of Famer Joe Namath — and, unsurprisingly, none of them disclosed the prosecution of the company and its former executives by the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our reporting questioned why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not bar the firm from acting as a major generator for unscrupulous Medicare Advantage brokers and their insurance company clients. … In April, the firm filed for a state-level bankruptcy equivalent in Delaware, called “assignment for the benefit of creditors.” Blue Lantern’s website is down, as is MedicareCoverageHelpline.com, and HealthInsurance.com, their signature assets. Nobody answers the 800 number Namath hocked for years. Litigation during the bankruptcy indicated that 7 million people were in Blue Lantern’s database and that they had been dialed at least 17 million times. While it is impossible to ascertain how many seniors were lured into Medicare Advantage by Blue Lantern, its predecessor firms and Namath, it’s unlikely any firm was more aggressive at expanding the Medicare Advantage market. … A company insider reached out to this reporter and said that the company began winding down operations in February, immediately after HEALTH CARE un-covered contacted them and Madison Dearborn Partners for comment.” Matthew Cunningham-Cook, “After Health Care Un-covered’s Reporting, Medicare Profiteer Shuts Down,” Health Care Un-covered.
