Book Description

Nearly 11 million Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare's private health insur. option. Benefits vary by MA plan and may include coverage for services not avail. in traditional Medicare. To ensure MA plan benefit package designs do not discriminate against beneficiaries in poor health with high expected health care costs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Serv. (CMS) reviews and approves all benefit packages yearly. This report examined: (1) MA plan benefit packages by average health status of plans' enrolled beneficiaries; (2) dist. and characteristics of MA plans by average beneficiary health status; and (3) CMS's process for ensuring that benefit packages do not discriminate with respect to health status. Charts and tables.