The Trump Administration announced a broad array of changes to Medicare Advantage plans last week in hopes the changes will further pressure providers to improve senior care.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials said the “innovations” will include everything from customizing plans based on beneficiaries’ chronic conditions and socioeconomic status to increasing access to telehealth services. CMS also wants to improve incentives for individual plans improve the health of seniors.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement that Medicare Advantage was launched over 13 years ago, and was due for a facelift. "The American healthcare system is very different today than it was thirteen years ago when the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs were launched in their current forms, but due to the slow pace of change in government, these programs have not been fully updated to reflect today’s realities,” said Verma. The new CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) will ideally spur greater competition among plans, while also “creating pressure to improve quality and lower costs in order to attract beneficiaries.”
“Today’s announcements are prime examples of how CMMI can test policies to modernize CMS programs and ensure that our seniors can access the latest benefits,” Verma said.
The changes will be tested out as part of the Value Based Insurance Design model for 2020. Eligible plans in all 50 states will be able to apply for the innovations, according to a CMS fact sheets available here and here. Starting in 2021, they’ll also start testing the inclusion of hospice benefits as part of Medicare Advantage. CMS said it is also planning to extend the performance period of its VBID model another three years, to 2024, to sufficiently evaluate the impact of these changes.
These new innovations supplement prior changes which, among other things, embrace Aging-in-Place:
2019 Medicare Advantage Plans Incorporate Long Term Care, Aging in Place Benefits
Trump Administration Embraces Aging In Place- 2019 Advantage Plans Permitted to Incorporate Long Term Care
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