Mandated Copayment Reductions in Medicare Advantage: Effects on Skilled Nursing Care, Hospitalizations, and Plan Exit.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To address concerns that postacute cost-sharing may deter high-need beneficiaries from participating in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have capped cost-sharing for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services in MA plans since 2011. This study examines whether SNF use, inpatient use, and plan disenrollment changed following stricter regulations in 2015 that required most MA plans to eliminate or substantially reduce cost-sharing for SNF care.

Design

Difference-in-differences retrospective analysis from 2013 to 2016.

Setting

MA plans.

Participants

Thirty-one million MA members in 320 plans with mandatory cost-sharing reductions and 261 plans without such reductions.

Measurements

Mean monthly number of S

SUBMITTER: Keohane LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7880533 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature