Billion-Dollar Bounty for AARP

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) agreed to an exclusive promotional deal in September with Oak Street Health, which operates 100 primary care clinics in a dozen states, according to Kaiser Health News.

The deal allows Oak Street Health to use AARP in its marketing for an undisclosed fee, according to the report.

This arrangement falls in line with a lucrative practice by the AARP, where the organization collects “royalties” in exchange for exclusive marketing deals with healthcare businesses eager to promote themselves to AARP’s membership.

In total, the AARP collects $1 billion in these kinds of royalties, according to its 2020 financial statement, KHN reported. About two thirds, or $752 million, of those royalties come from “health products and services,” according to the article. For comparison, AARP collected roughly $300 million in member dues in 2020.

There are questions about whether these partnerships are chosen because they benefit AARP’s members or because they are so profitable for the organization, according to the report. Marilyn Moon, who is a health policy analyst with ties to AARP since the 1980s, told KHN that it “certainly is a problem,” when the organization is profiting from these medicare-focused marketing partnerships while also lobbying on Medicare issues in Washington, D.C.

The partnership with Oak Street Health highlighted those concerns when the company came under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for its marketing tactics, KHN reported.

“It’s hard to know whether they’re advocating for their business interests or for the seniors that they are supposed to represent,” Joshua Gordon, director of health policy for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group, told KHN.

Filed under: General Problems