Enrolling in a higher-cost Medicare Advantage plan may not always get seniors better-quality health care, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Examining 15 different measures of quality among large representative samples of people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans during 2016 and 2017, researchers found that plans that charged a higher monthly premium provided on average only slightly better care as compared to plans with no monthly premium.
Quality varied substantially within each premium cost tier studied, with high-quality care being observed among a number of plans in each of the cost tiers. More than 700 Medicare Advantage plans were part of the analysis.
The findings are published in the latest edition of JAMA Health Forum.
Read more:
- Association of Medicare Advantage Premiums With Measures of Quality and Patient Experience. JAMA Health Forum. August 26 2022.