Posted by Phillipa on January 12, 2015, at 11:30:49
Okay are they switching due to cost or is this due to services. Seems like the article is trying to get people to go to HMO's Thoughts? Thanks
Medscape Medical News
Most New Medicare Advantage Users Switched From Medicare
Marcia Frellick
January 09, 2015.More than half of new Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees each year are people who switched from traditional Medicare, researchers found.
Gretchen A. Jacobson, PhD, associate director of the Program on Medicare Policy at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, DC, and colleagues found that in 2011, 52% of new MA enrollees had switched from traditional Medicare.
They also found that from 2006 to 2011, the numbers of enrollees choosing MA from the onset grew: 22% of newly eligible enrollees chose MA instead of Medicare in 2011, up from 15% in 2006.
Still, the study, published in the January issue of Health Affairs, showed that the percentage of enrollees who switch in either plan is low, at less than 5%, which indicates that when people pick a health plan, they stick with it.
MA Growing, but Who Are the Enrollees?
Previous data have shown that MA plans are growing, but it has not been clear whether the expansion was a result of newly eligible enrollees choosing MA or whether it was from established enrollees switching from traditional plans.
The researchers found that rates of switching between the two plans varied by age and dual-eligibility (both Medicare and Medicaid) status. For example, on average, 7.0% of the dual-eligible enrollees who were younger that 65 years and who had disabilities switched from MA to traditional Medicare compared with 4.6% of dual-eligible enrollees aged 65 years and older.
"Medicare beneficiaries who are younger than sixty-five and disabled tend to have more chronic conditions and cognitive and functional impairments," the authors write.
In contrast, Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 to 69 years had a higher rate of switching from traditional Medicare to MA, compared with the overall average for the entire population (5.3% vs 3.9%).
Meanwhile, dual-eligible enrollees switched in the other direction, from MA to Medicare, at a higher-than-average rate (10.1% vs 4.9%) annually. Still, the total numbers of dual-eligible enrollees in MA plans increased during the study period because a larger number switched from Medicare to MA than the reverse.
The authors note, however, that the Affordable Care Act called for phasing down payments to MA plans after the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission documented the higher costs of MA relative to traditional Medicare. Therefore, Congress agreed to reduce payments to private plans between 2012 and 2017.
"This study suggests that if current trends continue, and if [MA] matures in more communities around the country, more beneficiaries in traditional Medicare may switch to [MA] over time, and enrollment in [MA] plans will continue to grow. However, it will be several years before conclusions can be drawn, since reductions in payments to plans are still being phased in, and the effects of the reductions may take time to percolate," the authors write.
poster:Phillipa
thread:1075077
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