Medicare Advantage overpayments continue to balloon. Here are ways policymakers could address the problem

However, neither the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nor lawmakers adjusted MA payment policies as membership grew, and that’s one of the main reasons the Medicare system stays on a course toward insolvency, the experts said.

MA plans are paid based on the average cost per beneficiary in traditional Medicare in each county. When this system was developed in 2003, MA members accounted for about 15% of beneficiaries. Now, about 50% of Medicare beneficiaries belong to MA plans.

Strategies to address this challenge...