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Recent announcements by the Administration to improve the accuracy of payments and improve program integrity of Medicare Advantage are unlikely to have a major impact on the program, the insurance industry or beneficiaries, given relatively generous payments to plans and the robustness of the market for private Medicare plans.
This primer explains key elements of the Medicare program, which now provides health coverage to 55 million people -- including 46 million people age 65 and older and another 9 million younger adults with permanent disabilities. It looks at the characteristics of the Medicare population, what benefits are covered, how much people with Medicare pay for their benefits and the program’s overall costs and future financing challenges.
Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, an Associate Director for the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on May 17, 2023 as part of a hearing on Examining Health Care Denials and Delays in Medicare Advantage.
To capture the state of television marketing activities and consider the implications for people with Medicare, KFF analyzed ad data compiled by the Wesleyan Media Project, that were obtained from Vivvix (formerly Kantar) CMAG, a data analytics and consulting firm, and were coded by the Wesleyan Media Project in collaboration with KFF. The data set included all English-language TV ads that aired across national and local markets on broadcast television or national cable, from October 1st, 2022, through December 7th, 2022, the period that includes the Medicare open enrollment period for coverage in 2023.
Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage is available for people with Medicare who enroll in private plans, either a stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) for people in traditional Medicare, or a Medicare Advantage plan that covers all Medicare benefits, including prescription drugs (MA-PD). This issue brief provides an overview of Part D plan availability and premiums in 2024 and key trends over time.
With recent news about possible health insurance company mergers, Drew Altman looks beyond the impact on Wall Street to how mergers could affect Medicare beneficiaries in this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank.
This data note analyzes the number and variety of Medicare Advantage plan choices available to beneficiaries, and also describes changes in the health care insurers offering private health plans in 2018. This spotlight is part of a series of spotlights tracking key changes in the Medicare Advantage program.
A number of potential mergers and acquisitions between large firms that offer health insurance have been reported in the press. These mergers could affect consumers in the individual market, enrollees in the new federal and state Marketplaces, employees with employer-sponsored insurance, as well as people covered by public programs such as Medicare. This Data Note examines the Medicare Advantage market share of large firms that have reportedly engaged in merger and acquisition discussions: Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare.
This short explainer highlights some of the key information for people with Medicare about how Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, may affect them.
An estimated 200,000 Medicare beneficiaries were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Medicare played a key role in meeting the health care needs of the elderly and disabled beneficiaries who were displaced by the hurricane. Many of these beneficiaries face new challenges as a direct result of the hurricane.
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