Medicare Blog

how many medicare advantage members are there

by Dr. Chandler Turcotte Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
image

In 2021, more than 26 million people are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, accounting for 42 percent of the total Medicare population, and $343 billion (or 46%) of total federal Medicare spending (net of premiums).

26 million people

Full Answer

How many people are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans?

Jun 21, 2021 · Nearly 4.9 million Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a group plan offered to retirees by an employer or union. While this is roughly the same share of enrollment since 2014 (19%), the actual...

How many Medicare Advantage plans are available in 2020?

For example, in Part A, the cost share of a five-day hospital stay would be your hospital deductible of $1,484 (2021). In a Medicare Advantage plan, you can pay $225-$375 a day for each day in the hospital. This is just one example and each plan may vary. Read More: Health Plan Changes for …

What is the share of Medicare beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage plans?

In fact, more than 26 million Americans — or more than one out of every three people with Medicare — are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. 2. A Medicare Advantage plan offers the same coverage as Medicare Part A and Part B, and some Medicare Advantage plans may also offer benefits such as vision, hearing and dental coverage.

What percentage of enrollees are in Medicare Advantage plans with 3 stars?

Apr 13, 2022 · Medicare is a federal health insurance program that covers people age 65 and older and younger adults with long-term disabilities. In 2018, there were 4,515,510 total Medicare beneficiaries in Florida, with 2,593,338 enrolled in traditional (fee-for-service) Medicare, and 1,922,172 in Medicare Advantage private plans.

image

How popular is Medicare Advantage?

Recently, 42 percent of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Advantage plans, up from 31 percent in 2016, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Those numbers include 50 percent of Black and 54 percent of Hispanic enrollees vs. 36 percent of whites in 2018.Nov 15, 2021

Which Medicare Advantage plan has the most members?

Best for size of network: UnitedHealthcare Standout feature: UnitedHealthcare offers the largest Medicare Advantage network of all companies, with more than 1 million network care providers.Dec 21, 2021

How many Medicare members are there?

62.6 million peopleIn 2020, 62.6 million people were enrolled in the Medicare program, which equates to 18.4 percent of all people in the United States. Around 54 million of them were beneficiaries for reasons of age, while the rest were beneficiaries due to various disabilities.Feb 16, 2022

How many Medicare Advantage plans are there in the US?

3,834 Medicare Advantage plansTotal Number of Plans. In total, 3,834 Medicare Advantage plans are available nationwide for individual enrollment in 2022 – an 8 percent increase (284 more plans) from 2021 and the largest number of plans available in more than a decade (Figure 2; Appendix Table 1).Nov 2, 2021

What are 4 types of Medicare Advantage plans?

Medicare Advantage PlansHealth Maintenance Organization (HMO) Plans.Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Plans.Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) Plans.Special Needs Plans (SNPs)

What is the biggest disadvantage of Medicare Advantage?

The primary advantage is the monthly premium, which is generally lower than Medigap plans. The top disadvantages are that you must use provider networks and the copays can nickel and dime you to death.Dec 12, 2021

What percentage of Medicare is Medicare Advantage?

In 2021, more than 26 million people are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, accounting for 42 percent of the total Medicare population, and $343 billion (or 46%) of total federal Medicare spending (net of premiums).Jun 21, 2021

How many Medicare beneficiaries are there in 2021?

As of October 2021, the total Medicare enrollment is 63,964,675. Original Medicare enrollment is 36,045,321, and Medicare Advantage and Other Health Plan enrollment is 27,919,354. This includes enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans with and without prescription drug coverage.Dec 21, 2021

What percentage of the population is on Medicare?

18 percentMedicare is an important public health insurance scheme for U.S. adults aged 65 years and over. As of 2020, approximately 18 percent of the U.S. population was covered by Medicare, a slight increase from the previous year.Sep 24, 2021

Why is Medicare Advantage being pushed so hard?

Advantage plans are heavily advertised because of how they are funded. These plans' premiums are low or nonexistent because Medicare pays the carrier whenever someone enrolls. It benefits insurance companies to encourage enrollment in Advantage plans because of the money they receive from Medicare.Feb 24, 2021

Is Medicare Advantage more expensive than Medicare?

Clearly, the average total premium for Medicare Advantage (including prescription coverage and Part B) is less than the average total premium for Original Medicare plus Medigap plus Part D, although this has to be considered in conjunction with the fact that an enrollee with Original Medicare + Medigap will generally ...Nov 13, 2021

Which is better a Medigap policy or Medicare Advantage plan?

Generally, if you are in good health with few medical expenses, Medicare Advantage is a money-saving choice. But if you have serious medical conditions with expensive treatment and care costs, Medigap is generally better.

How many people will be enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2020?

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage has doubled over the past decade. In 2020, nearly four in ten (39%) of all Medicare beneficiaries – 24.1 million people out of 62.0 million Medicare beneficiaries overall – are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans; this rate has steadily increased over time since the early 2000s.

How much does Medicare Advantage pay in 2020?

However, 18 percent of beneficiaries in MA-PDs (2.8 million enrollees) pay at least $50 per month, including 6 percent who pay $100 or more per month, in addition to the monthly Part B premium. The MA-PD premium includes both the cost of Medicare-covered Part A and Part B benefits and Part D prescription drug coverage. Among MA-PD enrollees who pay a premium for their plan, the average premium is $63 per month. Altogether, including those who do not pay a premium, the average MA-PD enrollee pays $25 per month in 2020.

What percentage of Medicare beneficiaries are in Miami-Dade County?

Within states, Medicare Advantage penetration varies widely across counties. For example, in Florida, 71 percent of all beneficiaries living in Miami-Dade County are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans compared to only 14 percent of beneficiaries living in Monroe County (Key West).

When did CVS buy Aetna?

CVS Health purchased Aetna in 2018 and had the third largest growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment in 2020, increasing by about 396,000 beneficiaries between March 2019 and March 2020.

How much is the deductible for Medicare Advantage 2020?

In contrast, under traditional Medicare, when beneficiaries require an inpatient hospital stay, there is a deductible of $1,408 in 2020 (for one spell of illness) with no copayments until day 60 of an inpatient stay.

Does Medicare Advantage require prior authorization?

Medicare Advantage plans can require enrollees to receive prior authorization before a service will be covered, and nearly all Medicare Advantage enrollees (99%) are in plans that require prior authorization for some services in 2020. Prior authorization is most often required for relatively expensive services, such as inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility stays, and Part B drugs, and is infrequently required for preventive services. The number of enrollees in plans that require prior authorization for one or more services increased from 2019 to 2020, from 79% in 2019 to 99% in 2020. In contrast to Medicare Advantage plans, traditional Medicare does not generally require prior authorization for services, and does not require step therapy for Part B drugs.

How much out of pocket is Medicare?

Since 2011, federal regulation has required Medicare Advantage plans to provide an out-of-pocket limit for services covered under Parts A and B not to exceed $6,700 (in-network) or $10,000 (in-network and out-of-network combined).

How many people will be enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2020?

In 2020, more than 24 million Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. This brief provides an overview of the Medicare Advantage plans that are available for 2021 ...

How many Medicare Advantage plans will be available in 2021?

Number of Plans Available to Beneficiaries. For 2021, the average Medicare beneficiary has access to 33 Medicare Advantage plans, the largest number of options available in the last decade (Figure 1).

What percentage of Medicare beneficiaries are in non-metropolitan areas?

As in recent years, virtually all Medicare beneficiaries (99%) have access to a Medicare Advantage plan as an alternative to traditional Medicare, including almost all beneficiaries in metropolitan areas (99.9%) and the vast majority of beneficiaries in non-metropolitan areas (97.7%). In non-metropolitan counties, a smaller share of beneficiaries have access to HMOs (87% in non-metropolitan versus 99% in metropolitan counties) or local PPOs (89% in non-metropolitan versus 96% in metropolitan counties), and a slightly larger share of beneficiaries have access to regional PPOs (77% in non-metropolitan counties versus 72% in metropolitan counties).

Will Medicare be available in 2021?

More Medicare Advantage plans are being offered for 2021 than in any other year. Fourteen insurers are entering the Medicare Advantage market for the first time, and six insurers are exiting the market, suggesting thatMedicare Advantage remains an attractive, profitable market for insurers. As in prior years, some (mostly non-metropolitan) counties are less attractive to insurers, with fewer firms and plans available, though the number of areas where this is the case has declined over time. Overall, more than 99 percent of beneficiaries will have access to one or more Medicare Advantage plans in 2021, similar to prior years. With more firms offering SNPs and the number of SNPs rapidly growing, there may be greater focus on how well high-need, vulnerable beneficiaries are being served by Medicare Advantage plans, including SNPs as well as plans for general enrollment. As Medicare Advantage enrollment continues to grow, insurers seem to be responding by offering more plans and choices to the people on Medicare.

Does Medicare cover dental and vision?

Virtually all Medicare beneficiaries live in a county where at least one Medicare Advantage plan available for general enrollment has some extra benefits not covered by traditional Medicare, with 98% having access to some dental, fitness, vision, and hearing benefits for 2021.

Will Medicare offer telehealth in 2021?

As of 2020, Medicare Advantage plans have also been allowed to offer more telehealth benefits than traditional Medicare (though Medicare has temporarily expanded these benefits during the pandemic). The vast majority (98%) of Medicare Advantage plans are offering telehealth in 2021 (up from 91% in 2020) (Figure 7).

How many Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a group plan?

Group Plans. 4.4 million Medicare Advantage enrollees (20%) are in a group plan in 2019 – more than double the number of Medicare beneficiaries in group plans in 2010 ( Figure 5 ). Group plans are largely sponsored by unions and employers for retirees. Under these arrangements, employers or unions contract with an insurer to provide Medicare ...

How many states have Medicare Advantage?

In six states (HI, FL, HI, MN, OR, PA, and WI) and Puerto Rico, more than 40% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. About one in ten (11%) Medicare beneficiaries live in a county where the majority of beneficiaries are in a Medicare Advantage plan in 2019. In 2 states (AK and WY), which are more rural, ...

What is Medicare Advantage Plan?

Now called Medicare Advantage plans, these private health plans receive capitated payments to provide all Medicare-covered services to plan enrollees. Medicare payments to plans for Medicare Part A and Part B services are projected to total $250 billion in 2019, accounting for 33% of total Medicare spending.

How many people are on Medicare in 2019?

In 2019, the majority of the 64 million people on Medicare are covered by traditional Medicare, but one-third (34%) are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans ( Figure 1 ). Over the past decade, the number of beneficiaries enrolled in private plans has nearly doubled from 11.1 million in 2010 to 22.0 million in 2019.

What is regional PPO?

Regional PPOs were established to provide rural beneficiaries with greater access to Medicare Advantage plans, including the extra benefits often covered by the plans, and cover entire statewide or multi-state regions. Regional PPOs account for 6% of all Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2019.

Does Medicare Advantage cover Part D?

Medicare Advantage plans are generally required to offer at least one plan that covers the Part D drug benefit. In 2019, 90% of Medicare Advantage plans offer prescription drug coverage, while most Medicare Advantage enrollees (88%) select this benefit.

What is a SNP in health care?

Special Needs Plans (SNPs), typically HMOs, are restricted to beneficiaries who: (1) are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; (2) live in long-term care institutions or would otherwise require an institutional level of care; or (3) have certain chronic conditions ( Figure 4 ).

What is Medicare Advantage?

A Medicare Advantage plan offers the same coverage as Medicare Part A and Part B , and some Medicare Advantage plans may also offer benefits such as vision, hearing and dental coverage. Some plans may also cover prescription drugs. Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurance companies. Plan availability varies from state to state.

How many people will be on Medicare in 2021?

Close to 63 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare in 2021, and this number will only continue to rise as members of the baby boomer generation continue to join the 65-and-over demographic. 1

What is a PPO plan?

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans provide a little more freedom by offering some coverage for out-of-network care and not requiring members to obtain a referral before visiting a specialist. PPO plans can come in the form of either regional PPOs or local PPOs .

Does Medicare cover HMO?

There is no coverage for care received outside of the plan’s network.

What is Medicare Advantage?

Medicare Advantage (sometimes called Medicare Part C or MA) is a type of health insurance plan in the United States that provides Medicare benefits through a private-sector health insurer. In a Medicare Advantage plan, a Medicare beneficiary pays a monthly premium to a private insurance company ...

What is the difference between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare?

From a beneficiary's point of view, there are several key differences between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare. Most Medicare Advantage plans are managed care plans (e.g., PPOs or HMOs) with limited provider networks, whereas virtually every physician and hospital in the U.S. accepts Original Medicare.

How much does Medicare pay in 2020?

In 2020, about 40% of Medicare beneficiaries were covered under Medicare Advantage plans. Nearly all Medicare beneficiaries (99%) will have access to at least one Medicare Advantage ...

How does capitation work for Medicare Advantage?

For each person who chooses to enroll in a Part C Medicare Advantage or other Part C plan, Medicare pays the health plan sponsor a set amount every month ("capitation"). The capitated fee associated with a Medicare Advantage and other Part C plan is specific to each county in the United States and is primarily driven by a government-administered benchmark/framework/competitive-bidding process that uses that county's average per-beneficiary FFS costs from a previous year as a starting point to determine the benchmark. The fee is then adjusted up or down based on the beneficiary's personal health condition; the intent of this adjustment is that the payments be spending neutral (lower for relatively healthy plan members and higher for those who are not so healthy).

Does Medicare Advantage have a premium?

Both charge a premium for Part B benefits, and about 40% of Medicare Advantage enrollees with prescription drug benefits pay an additional premium. Medicare Advantage plans include an annual out-of-pocket spending limit, while Original Medicare does not and is usually supplemented with a "Medigap" plan.

Does Medicare Advantage cover out of pocket costs?

In addition Medicare Advantage plans may cover benefits in a different way. For example, plans that require higher out-of-pocket costs than Medicare Parts A or B for some benefits, such as skilled nursing facility care, might offer lower copayments for doctor visits to balance their benefits package.

Does Medicare pay for Part A and Part B?

By contrast, under so-called "Original Medicare", a Medicare beneficiary pays a monthly premium to the federal government and receives coverage for Part A and Part B services, but must purchase other coverage (e.g., for prescription drugs) separately.

How many Medicare beneficiaries are there in 2019?

In 2019 there were 64 million Medicare beneficiaries. Twenty-four million of those beneficiaries chose to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan; the remainder were covered by fee-for-service Medicare. Over 37% of the total Medicare beneficiary population chose Medicare Advantage. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that Medicare Advantage enrollment will grow to nearly 50% by 2029.1 To better understand the increasing role of Medicare Advantage for Medicare beneficiaries we looked at similarities and differences among enrollees in those two programs across several years. We conclude that overall the two programs both attract a broad mix of beneficiaries but there are some interesting differences.

What is MA member?

MA members were identified as those entitled to both Parts A and B and belonging to an MA plan by virtue of reporting a health maintenance organization (HMO) buy-in value. Those identified as MA members with plan IDs in the “800” series were further identified as EGWP members and excluded from the demographic comparisons. Part D-only EGWPs were also excluded. FFS beneficiaries were identified as any remaining entitled beneficiary with Part A-only, Part B-only, or both Parts A and B.

How many people switched from MA to FFS in 2019?

Of the 53 million beneficiaries in the 2013 Medicare cohort, beneficiaries switched between MA and FFS over 8 million times by 2019, including people who switched multiple times. However, 41 million maintained their original coverage for the entire period; approximately 81% of FFS beneficiaries and 85% of MA enrollees.

Is Medicare Advantage open enrollment?

Medicare beneficiaries have the opportunity to enroll in Medicare Advantage (MA) every year during annual open enrollment. The number of beneficiaries choosing MA each year has been steadily increasing. 2019 MA enrollment was 60% more than in 2013, but fee-for-service Medicare (FFS) increased by only 5%. In this report we explore how this growth happened by examining the characteristics of the people who chose MA and by comparing those characteristics to people who chose FFS.

image

Plan Offerings in 2021

  • Number of Plans
    Number of Plans Available to Beneficiaries.For 2021, the average Medicare beneficiary has access to 33 Medicare Advantage plans, the largest number of options available in the last decade (Figure 1). Among the 33 Medicare Advantage plans generally available for individual en…
See more on kff.org

Access to Medicare Advantage Plans, by Plan Type

  • As in recent years, virtually all Medicare beneficiaries (99%) have access to a Medicare Advantage plan as an alternative to traditional Medicare, including almost all beneficiaries in metropolitan areas (99.9%) and the vast majority of beneficiaries in non-metropolitan areas (97.7%). In non-metropolitan counties, a smaller share of beneficiaries have access to HMOs (87% in non-metro…
See more on kff.org

Number of Firms

  • The average Medicare beneficiary is able to choose from plans offered by 8 firms in 2021, one more than in 2020 (Figure 5). Despite most beneficiaries having access to plans operated by several different firms, enrollment is concentratedin plans operated by UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates. More than one-quarter of beneficiaries (27%) are …
See more on kff.org

New Market Entrants and Exits

  • Medicare Advantage continues to be an attractive market for insurers, with 14 firms entering the market for the first time in 2021, collectively accounting for about 6 percent of the growth in the number of plans available for general enrollment and about 10 percent of the growth in SNPs (Appendix Table 2). Nine new entrants are offering HMOs available for individual enrollment. Fiv…
See more on kff.org

Premiums

  • The vast majority of Medicare Advantage plans for individual enrollment (89%) will include prescription drug coverage (MA-PDs), and 54 percent of these plans will charge no premium, other than the Part B premium, similar to 2020. More than nine out of ten beneficiaries (96%) have access to a MA-PD with no monthly premium in 2021. However, in Wyoming, beneficiaries do no…
See more on kff.org

Extra Benefits

  • Medicare Advantage plans may provide extra benefits that are not available in traditional Medicare, are considered “primarily health related,” and can use rebate dollars (including bonus payments) to help cover the cost of these extra benefits. Beginning in 2019, CMS expanded the definition of “primarily health related” to allow Medicare Advantage plans to offer additional sup…
See more on kff.org

Discussion

  • More Medicare Advantage plans are being offered for 2021 than in any other year. Fourteen insurers are entering the Medicare Advantage market for the first time, and six insurers are exiting the market, suggesting thatMedicare Advantage remains an attractive, profitable market for insurers. As in prior years, some (mostly non-metropolitan) counties are less attractive to insure…
See more on kff.org

Statistics

  • In 2017, the majority of the 57 million people on Medicare are covered by traditional Medicare, with one-third (33%) enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan (Figure 1). Since 2004, the number of beneficiaries enrolled in private plans has more than tripled from 5.3 million (13%) to 19.0 million in 2017 (33%).
See more on kff.org

Benefits

  • HMOs and Local PPOs contract with provider networks to deliver Medicare benefits. HMOs account for the majority (63%) of total Medicare Advantage enrollment in 2017; local PPOs, account for 26% of all Medicare Advantage enrollees (Figure 3). Medicare Advantage plans are paid to provide all Medicare benefits. In addition, since 2011, all plans have been required to limi…
See more on kff.org

Purpose

  • Regional PPOs were established to provide rural beneficiaries greater access to Medicare Advantage plans, and cover entire statewide or multi-state regions. Regional PPOs account for 7% of all Medicare Advantage enrollees in 2017.
See more on kff.org

Types

  • Other Plan Types. In addition to Medicare Advantage HMOs and PPOs, Medicare contracts with insurers to offer other types of plans, although enrollment in these other plan types is relatively low. Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) plans account for 0.2 million enrollees in 2017, or 1% of all enrollees. Another 0.7 million beneficiaries are enrolled in cost plans, PACE plans, medical savin…
See more on kff.org

Scope

  • Special Needs Plans (SNPs), typically HMOs, are restricted to beneficiaries who: (1) are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; (2) live in long-term care institutions or would otherwise require an institutional level of care; or (3) have certain chronic conditions. In 2017, 2.3 million beneficiaries are enrolled in SNPs; enrollment in SNPs for dual eligibles accounts for 83% of tota…
See more on kff.org

Funding

  • Group Plans. Nearly one in five (19%) Medicare Advantage enrollees (3.7 million) are in a group plan in 2017 more than double the number of Medicare beneficiaries in group plans in 2008. Group plans are largely sponsored by unions and employers for retirees. Under these arrangements, employers or unions contract with an insurer to provide Medicare benefits and ad…
See more on kff.org

Cost

  • Medicare pays Medicare Advantage plans a capitated (per enrollee) amount to provide all Part A and B benefits. In addition, Medicare makes a separate payment to plans for providing prescription drug benefits under Medicare Part D. Prior to the BBA of 1997, Medicare paid plans 95% of average traditional Medicare costs in each county because HMOs were thought to be abl…
See more on kff.org

History

  • Beginning in the late 1990s, Congress revised the payment formula to attract more plans throughout the country, particularly in rural and certain urban areas. The BBA of 1997 established a payment floor, applicable almost exclusively to rural counties. The Benefits Improvement and Protection Act (BIPA) of 2000 created payment floors for urban areas and increased the floor fo…
See more on kff.org

Mechanism

  • Since 2006, Medicare has paid plans under a bidding process. Plans submit bids based on estimated costs per enrollee for services covered under Medicare Parts A and B; all bids that meet the necessary requirements are accepted. The bids are compared to benchmark amounts that are set by a formula established in statute and vary by county (or region in the case of regional PPO…
See more on kff.org

Impact

  • As a result of changes made over the years to encourage private plan participation and enrollment, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) determined that Medicare was paying private plans 14% more per enrollee than the cost of care in traditional Medicare. In response, the ACA of 2010 revised the methodology for paying plans by gradually reducing benc…
See more on kff.org

Ratings

  • The ACA also established a new system to compensate plans with high quality ratings. Since 2012, Medicare Advantage plans with 4 or more stars and plans without ratings have been receiving bonus payments based on quality ratings. In 2017, 66 percent of Medicare Advantage enrollees are in plans with 4 or more stars. The ACA also reduced rebates for all plans, but allow…
See more on kff.org

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9