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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 his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available.
This chartpack presents a summary of Part D enrollment, premiums, cost sharing, benefit design and other key trends in 2016 and changes over time. For 2016, the analysis finds that 40% of Part D enrollees are now in Medicare Advantage drug plans, and over half of all enrollees are in plans offered by just three firms. The chartpack also highlights some concerning trends in the Low-Income Subsidy market, with the fewest number of premium-free plans…
Sources of Supplemental Coverage Among Medicare Beneficiaries, 2009 Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 2009 Cost and Use file.
Total Medicare Private Health Plan Enrollment, 1999-2013 Download Source MPR/Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of CMS Medicare Advantage enrollment files, 2008-2013, and MPR, “Tracking Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Plans Monthly Report,” 2001-2007; enrollment numbers from March of the respective year, with the exception of 2006, which is from April.
This September 2014 Visualizing Health Policy Infographic examines the role of private plans, such as HMOs and PPOs, in Medicare. These Medicare Advantage plans offer an alternative to traditional Medicare and provide all benefits covered under Medicare Parts A and B, and often Part D. The infographic includes data on Medicare Advantage penetration across the country. It shows the concentration of enrollment among a small number of firms and affiliates, and displays the extent to…
This Data Note examines the availability of plans nationwide and by state in 2015, and changes in plan availability since 2011. It documents the number and share of Medicare Advantage enrollees affected by plan withdrawals each year, the characteristics of plans that will be entering the market and characteristics of those exiting the market in 2015.
The 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.
The new provider search tool on the Medicare Plan Finder could make it easier for beneficiaries to figure out if their doctors are in a Medicare Advantage plan's network despite some data issues.
Certain insurers must now publicly report specific prior authorization metrics, but the new data offer limited insight, providing no information on what types of services are being approved and denied or why as well as no data on prescription drugs.
This brief analyzes out-of-pocket limits in Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, variation by plan type, the distribution of enrollees facing different out-of-pocket limits, and trends over time.
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