Key Facts About Medicare Beneficiaries in Rural Areas
This brief highlights key facts about Medicare beneficiaries living in rural areas, including their demographic and health characteristics, access to care, and satisfaction with care.
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5 Questions About the Idea of Default Enrollment into Medicare Advantage Plans
Issue BriefThis brief considers how default enrollment into Medicare Advantage might work, potential challenges with this approach, and implications for beneficiaries, insurers, providers, agents and brokers, and the federal budget.
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Medicare Advantage Insurers Often Use Rewards and Incentives to Encourage Enrollees to Complete Health Risk Assessments (HRAs)
Issue BriefThis analysis examines the share of Medicare Advantage enrollees in contracts (which usually include multiple plans) that offered rewards or incentives for completing health risk assessments (HRAs) in 2023, as well as differences across Medicare Advantage insurers.
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Stand-Alone Drug Plans Cover a Larger Share of Medicare Part D Enrollees Living in the Most Rural Areas Than Medicare Advantage Plans
Issue BriefTo understand the role of Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans in serving rural Medicare beneficiaries, this data note analyzes 2025 Part D enrollment in PDPs and Medicare Advantage drug plans by geographic area nationally and at the state level.
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Most People in the Most Rural Counties Get Medicare Coverage from Traditional Medicare
Issue BriefWhile enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the private plan alternative to traditional Medicare, has grown steadily over the past decade, traditional Medicare remains the most common source of coverage for people who live in rural areas.
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Medicare Advantage Payments to Increase Again
Quick TakeThe increase translates into an additional $35 billion to Medicare Advantage plans in 2026 compared to this year….The increase in payments is larger than for 2025 (3.7%) or 2024 (3.3%), but below the increase for 2023 (8.5%), and comes at a time of increasing scrutiny over Medicare Advantage payments.
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Medicare Program Integrity and Efforts to Root Out Improper Payments, Fraud, Waste and Abuse
Issue BriefThis brief explains fraud, waste, abuse, and improper payments in Medicare and describes actions to ensure Medicare program integrity.
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Will the Trump Administration Fast Track the Privatization of Medicare?
Policy WatchThe privatization of Medicare has been taking place without much public debate – a trend that has implications for the 68 million people covered by Medicare, health care providers, Medicare spending, and taxpayers. It's not yet clear whether the administration will promote policies to accelerate the privatization of Medicare or focus more on achieving efficiencies and savings within Medicare Advantage, or pursue policies that aim to achieve both. How this plays out will have implications for beneficiaries, health care providers and insurers, and is worthy of serious debate.
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A Backlash Against Health Insurers, Redux
PerspectiveIn this JAMA Health Forum post, Executive Vice President Larry Levitt recalls the mid-1990s’ public backlash against Health Maintenance Organizations (commonly known as HMOs) – all of which preceded the recent outpouring of health insurance concerns – as well as how consumer protections against coverage restrictions have evolved and fallen short.
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Medicare Advantage Insurers Made Nearly 50 Million Prior Authorization Determinations in 2023
Issue BriefNearly 50 million prior authorization requests were submitted to Medicare Advantage insurers on behalf of Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2023, of which 3.2 million (6.4%) were denied. Just 11.7% of denied requests were appealed, though 81.7% of appeals overturned the initial denial in Medicare Advantage. Substantially fewer prior authorization requests were made in traditional Medicare, reflecting the small number of services subject to prior authorization requirements.