Fitness memberships and favorable selection in Medicare Advantage plans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Because Medicare Advantage plans must pay for covered services, they may design insurance benefits to appeal to healthier beneficiaries.

Methods

We identified 11 Medicare Advantage plans that offered new fitness-membership benefits in 2004 or 2005 and matched these plans to 11 Medicare Advantage control plans that did not offer coverage for fitness memberships. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we compared the self-reported health status of persons who enrolled after the fitness benefit was added to the plan with the self-reported health status of persons entering the same plan before the fitness benefit was offered.

Results

The proportion of enrollees reporting excellent or very good health was 6.1 percentage points higher (95% confidence interva

SUBMITTER: Cooper AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3341413 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature