Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Just this year a majority of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. While these plans are popular with patients, I recently wrote that some rural providers are refusing to accept Medicare Advantage due to low reimbursement. A recent article from Kaiser Health News finds that provider frustration with Medicare Advantage is spreading to…
Via the Kaiser Family Foundation: In 2023, more than half (51%) of eligible Medicare beneficiaries – 30.8 million people out of 60.0 million Medicare beneficiaries with both Medicare Parts A and B – are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage enrollment as a share of the eligible Medicare population has jumped from 19% in…
That may be the case. Modern Healthcare reports: Last month, St. Charles Health System threatened to cut ties with all Medicare Advantage plans next year, a move that would leave an estimated 26,000 local beneficiaries without access to a hospital less than 100 miles away.“The reality of Medicare Advantage in central Oregon is that it…
That is the question Park, Langellier, and Meyers (2022) aim to estimate in their recent Health Services Research publication. The authors use 2015-2017 data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services and control for other differences between integrated and non-integrated Medicare Advantage (MA) plans using state fixed effects and contract random effects. Using this…
That is the connection made between Medicare Advantage (MA) Star Ratings under the Quality Bonus Program (QBP) and Garrison Keillor well-known segment on the Prairie Home Companion in a recent paper by Teno and Ankuda (2022). To better understand this linkage, first recall the famous quote from Mr. Keillor: That’s the news from Lake Wobegon,…
Fierce Healthcare reports that in 2022 Medicare Advantage enrollment is continuing to grow at the expense of traditional fee-for-service Medicare. They write that: Medicare Advantage plans signed up another 2.3 million beneficiaries for the 2022 coverage year, with the program now making up 45% of all Medicare enrollment, a new study found. …total 2022 enrollment…
Medicare Advantage has grown over time. In 2020, nearly four in ten (39%) of all Medicare beneficiaries – 24.1 million people out of 62.0 million Medicare beneficiaries overall – were enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. With MA enrollment growing, a key question is who provides higher quality care: Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) or MA? Who…
CMS recently authorized Medicare Advantage (MA) plans the ability to apply step therapy protocols to Part B drugs. Although it is not clear the degree to which the MA plans will implement step therapy, a good guide is to see what is happening in the commercial insurance market. A Health Affairs blog by Chambers, Panzer and Neumann attempts…
CMS has focused in recent years on payment reform–especially alternative payment models–in Medicare’s fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement system, but much less has been paid to beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare’s managed care program (i.e., Medicare Advantage). Currently, however, more than 1 in 3 beneficiaries are enrolled in an Medicare Advantage plan, and by 2028 that number could…
Austin Frakt of the Incidental Economist argues convincingly–and I agree with him–that the answer is no. Medicare Advantage plans have been found to be of higher quality than traditional Medicare. They also reduce wasteful use of health care by managing care, something the traditional program doesn’t do at all. Finally, they fill in gaps in coverage and…