Darn it, where does she get all her information?
This article in the Washington Post takes a political angle on Medicare Advantage. What’s interesting is the government touting a six percent YOY decrease in Medicare Advantage premia vs. only a 3.6 percent drop in traditional Medicare—not costs, just premia.
Of course, Medicare Advantage premia are dropping because the one thing insurers need to gain access to the revenue stream associated with a patient’s Medicare Advantage benefit is the patient’s own signature when they enroll in a plan—and if they have to drop the premiums the patient pays to get that name on the bottom line, then so be it—the insurance company will more than make it up on the back end.
Here is CMS’s summary of 2017 health spending
Key ‘graph:
(even controlling for growth in enrollment, the cost of) Almost every service category within Medicare private health plans experienced faster growth in 2017—most notably hospital care and physician services, which together represented 57 percent of total Medicare private health plan spending…”
The pressure on the Medicare Advantage trust fund is growing.
Meanwhile, the increasing number of Medicare Advantage patients is putting pressure on nursing facilities:
“The rise of Medicare Advantage has taken a toll on skilled nursing facilities, which receive significantly lower reimbursements under the public-private plans than through traditional Medicare. In the second quarter of 2018, SNFs received an average fee-for-service Medicare reimbursement of $521 per day per patient, according to the most recent set of statistics compiled by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), compared to $427 from Medicare Advantage.”
No surprise—except that the consequences of overbuilding SNFs are going to come home to roost much more rapidly than anyone involved thought.
Meanwhile, research suggests that Medicare Advantage is driving patients to SNFs based on price rather than quality
Again, no surprise.
Less than a year old and already the Medicare Advantage home care benefit is going national.
CareLinx launches Turnkey Home Care Option for MA plans.
The question is, does the benefit offer enough value that Medicare Advantage plans will buy?
So far, the answer is a huge no.
Do Medicare Advantage beneficiaries use less opiods?
Yes, but only because opioid use is driven by a relatively small number of very high prescribers—and they don’t participate in the program, probably because they make enough money from prescribing opioids.
Tomism
“All you have is your labor and your passion. Find a system that rewards both and don’t settle for anything less.”