When Max Baucus speaks, people listen.

Last week Dawn Teo wrote an article at Huffington Post about Humana sending out a mailer full of lies and misinformation to their Medicare customers. Because of the reaction that story received, the established media figured they couldn’t ignore something senior citizens were worried about, the calls and letters to Congress mounted – and ultimately the Senate Finance Committee has rebuked Humana’s tactics.

Yesterday morning the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servces (known as CMS) sent a cease order to Humana telling them to stop sending out their misleading mailer, to remove the misleading information from their website, and so on. Later yesterday CMS sent out a memorandum to ALL Medicare providers saying in essence that they know other providers are doing the same thing Humana did — and they better stop now.

CMS is promising to take further action as soon as their investigation is complete.

You can read Dawn Teo’s follow-up article, released yesterday, at the Huffington Post.

Here’s the chain of events, starting with one question about misinformation:

Instead of thinking that it was beyond an individual to make a change, a woman reached to her resources in repsonse to her elderly mother getting one of these scare-o-grams from Humana intended to derail the debate on health care reform.

Her concern generated Teo’s article and others, phone calls, and letters to congress.

Those raised voices changed the media focus, and influenced their narrative, too.

In a statement, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) condemned the letter as a scare tactic; ultimately his influence coupled to media coverage forced CMS to officially notice that insurance companies were attempting to frighten and mislead the elderly, and react; The CMS launched the probe at the urging of Baucus (chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.)

With Huffington Post and even more traditionally business-friendly media outlets watching, CMS decided to use their power to stop this reprehensible practice.

What’s left to complete the story is repairing the damage Humana’s deliberate misinformation did — by spreading the REAL story.  Corporate misinformation distorts the debate.  Do you watch, or fight back?

Please write to the media outlet you rely on most today, and ask them to investigate how corporate influence is twisting the debate – and media coverage. Almost everybody who knows anything about how the Congress works has been saying Max Baucus is the key, with many suggesting he’s in the pocket of anti-reform lobbyists. No matter if you like his recently-introduced reform bill or not, the concerted actions of ordinary people led to pressure that got one of the most powerful Senators to intervene on the side of – well – ordinary people. It’s not about who listens to Max Baucus, it’s who does Max Baucus listen to?

This is another chapter in the story of reform, of visible proponents who refuse to sit down and shut up. The entrenched interests claim it will cost too much to change; they want everybody to forget the cost of doing nothing is far, far greater. The President had mobilized a vast network to spread his message during the campaign, and the voters mandated change. While the process and tactics have changed, the people who were adamant about changing DC haven’t fallen silent.

“Ms. Teo, you are a credit to journalists everywhere. The “If it bleeds, it leads,” and, “Me first,” journalistic frauds and wannabes might take a lesson here about what straight, principled reporting can do. Brava!“

Linda Hansen, author