News | November 30, 2006

Efforts to include more private insurers in Medicare may be costing the agency more money, new research shows.

On average, private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans were paid 12.4 percent more per enrollee in 2005 than what the same enrollees would have cost the traditional U.S. Medicare fee-for-service program, says a report released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports independent research on health and social issues.

"While encouraging enrollment in private plans was billed as a way to reduce costs for the program, Medicare Advantage, in fact, costs Medicare money because of the extra payments," report author Brian Biles, professor of health policy at George Washington University, said in a prepared statement.

The report authors estimated that extra payments to MA plans in 2005 totaled more than $5.2 billion over fee-for-service costs for about 5.6 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in MA plans. That works out to about $922 more per person.

Most of those extra payments were required under the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which was meant to expand the role of private plans in Medicare.

Eliminating extra payments to private plans could save Medicare about $30 billion over five years, the report authors estimated. These savings could be used in a number of ways, including filling in the coverage gap (the so-called doughnut hole) in the Part D drug benefit and reducing the increase in the Part B premium in 2007 by about $10 per month for each beneficiary.

"If traditional Medicare and private plans are ever to compete fairly, they need to compete on a level playing field, which would require the elimination of these extra payments," Biles said.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers information about health insurance.


Related Content

News | Cardiac Imaging

May 17, 2024 — The Cum Laude Award-Winning Online Poster presented during the 124th ARRS Annual Meeting found that the ...

Time May 17, 2024
arrow
News | Computed Tomography (CT)

September 19, 2023 — An advanced CT test can identify individuals with stable angina at a reduced risk of three-year ...

Time September 19, 2023
arrow
News | SPECT-CT

September 12, 2022 — Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, announced new milestones in the development of ...

Time September 12, 2022
arrow
News | Contrast Media

August 2, 2022 – A new update has been announced as the radiology world continues to address supply disruptions of ...

Time August 02, 2022
arrow
News | Mobile C-Arms

July 29, 2022 — Siemens Healthineers has announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the ARTIS icono ...

Time July 29, 2022
arrow
News | Mobile C-Arms

January 18, 2022 – Philips Healthcare announced physicians will now have access to advanced new 3D image guidance ...

Time January 18, 2022
arrow
Feature | Mobile C-Arms | By Bhvita Jani

With the postponement of non-essential elective surgeries and medical procedures in 2020 to conserve medical resources ...

Time July 07, 2021
arrow
News | Angiography

December 3, 2020 — GE Healthcare is introducing a new version of its robotic driven angiography system for image guided ...

Time December 01, 2020
arrow
News | Mobile C-Arms

August 18, 2020 — Ziehm Imaging announces the acquisition of Therenva, a French-based developer of planning and imaging ...

Time August 18, 2020
arrow
News | Computed Tomography (CT)

February 10, 2020 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared patient-specific airway stents developed by ...

Time February 10, 2020
arrow
Subscribe Now