Association Between the Medicare Advantage Quartile Adjustment System and Plan Behavior and Enrollment.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Medicare Advantage (MA) has grown in popularity, but critics believe that insurers are overpaid, partially due to the quartile adjustment system that determines plan benchmarks. However, elimination of the quartile adjustments may be associated with less generous benefits and fewer plan offerings, which could slow MA enrollment growth.

Objective

To examine whether the quartile adjustment system is associated with differences in county-level benefits, insurer offerings, and MA enrollment.

Design, setting, and participants

The quartile adjustments create discontinuous jumps in county-level base payments based on historical traditional Medicare spending. Data from January 2017 to December 2021 and a regression discontinuity design were used to examine changes

SUBMITTER: Murray RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10787313 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature