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Medicare Advantage plans not always a good deal |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Beneficiaries in poor health can pay more out of pocket for care in Medicare Advantage (MA) managed care plans than in traditional Medicare with Medigap supplemental coverage, a new Commonwealth Fund report finds. The report says beneficiaries in poor health can spend up to $2,195 more in annual out-of-pocket costs for their care in 19 out of 88 plans than they would have in fee-for-service Medicare with Medigap supplemental coverage. They found costs for beneficiaries in good health lower in all 88 MA plans and, for those in fair health, all but two MA plans had lower costs than fee-for-service plans. But for beneficiaries in poor health, 19 of the 88 plans had higher out-of-pocket costs than they would have had in traditional Medicare with a Medigap supplement. In the MA plan with the best protection for enrollees in poor health, annual out-of-pocket costs were $1,359 in the MA plan compared with $5,984 in the traditional Medicare plus Medigap Plan F coverage. "These findings raise questions about what Medicare is achieving with extra payments to private Medicare Advantage plans, which totaled more than $2.7 billion in 2005 over fee-for-service costs," said Fund President Karen Davis. "While the payments were designed to help improve benefit packages, the most vulnerable enrollees in MA plans are facing high cost burdens for their health care, leaving them at risk for not getting needed health care services.
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