Medicare Advantage (MA) plans continue to come under scrutiny by Congress for the simple reason that CMS is paying private insurance companies more to administer medicare than they can do themselves under the current fee for service method.

Since that is well documented, why are the plethora of medicare advantage plans asking providers like us to accept below medicare rates?  Shouldn’t they be higher than medicare rates?

As a way to repeal the further cuts to physician fee schedule as is currently in place, Congress is listing significant cuts to the MA plans as a source of funds.  No details to the amount of cuts.  Does anybody really believe that private insurance companies will stay in the MA game if they are paid significantly less?  Haven’t we seen this same cycle for medicare replacement years ago?

Lastly, for many of us who have come to believe that CMS has a much lower cost to administer than private insurance, read this for a different analysis.

Thoughts,

Larry