- A RAND study published in JAMA Health Forum found that higher-cost Medicare Advantage (MA) plans don’t always yield higher quality. Quality varied substantially within each premium cost tier studied, with people enrolled in the two higher-premium plan tiers reporting similar or slightly better experiences on average than enrollees in the lower-premium categories. For example, a plan that had a $60 to $120 monthly premium had a 1.4-point increase in patient experience scores compared with a zero-dollar premium plan. However, a plan that had more than $120 in monthly premiums had only a 2.2-point increase in their experience scores compared to a zero-cost plan. The researchers concluded that “premium cost is a poor proxy for assessing the quality of a Medicare Advantage plan.” (Study here; Article here)
August 30, 2022
Payers