Medicare

In this brief we identify specific gaps in Medicare Advantage data and discuss the implications for program oversight and beneficiary decision making.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes several provisions to lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and reduce drug spending by the federal government, including a number of changes to the Medicare Part D drug benefit. This brief provides an overview of the Part D benefit design and Part D enrollee cost-sharing requirements in 2023 and changes coming in 2024 and 2025.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued initial guidance describing CMS’s plans for implementation of the new Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, which was established by the Inflation Reduction Act. These FAQs address several questions related to Medicare’s drug price negotiation program and how CMS intends to implement the new program, with a focus on the details that apply for 2026, the first year that negotiated prices will be available under this new program.

Published in the journal Health Affairs, this analysis compared measures of access to care, cost concerns, and satisfaction with care for beneficiaries younger than age sixty-five versus those ages sixty-five and older, using the 2019 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey.

In this JAMA Forum column, KFF’s Larry Levitt examines the growing role of private insurance companies in public programs, including Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care, and the tradeoffs that result.

With a divided Congress expected to weigh spending cuts during its debt ceiling and budget debates, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that the public has broad concerns about Medicare’s sustainability for the future but mostly views the debate about Medicare cuts as largely politics. About eight in 10…

Large majorities of the public hold favorable views of Medicare and Medicaid. While most people worry about Medicare’s sustainability for the future, they also view the debate in Washington about Medicare cuts as largely politics.

This data note provides an overview of the role of the Medicare program for people with and at risk for HIV.

Medicare Advantage is the rapidly growing private plan alternative to traditional Medicare that provides coverage to approximately half of Medicare beneficiaries. Controversy has arisen over a Biden Administration proposal for changes to payments to insurers for the coming year, including how the health risk of enrollees is captured, as well…