Medicare Advantage has little impact on traditional Medicare spending

Modern Healthcare September 5, 2019
Michael Brady

Medicare Advantage market share has little effect on how physicians care for or code their fee-for-service patients, according to new research from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Thursday.

Many health experts believe Medicare Advantage’s growing rolls have “spillover” effects on traditional, fee-for-service Medicare because most physicians care for both types of patients. As Medicare Advantage grows in popularity, they hoped that would induce physicians to practice lower-cost medicine and code more.

But MedPAC’s study found that fee-for-service spending was just 2% lower in markets with high Advantage penetration compared to those with the lowest numbers. High Advantage penetration averaged 52.2% compared to 13% in low markets.

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