Medicare Advantage’s growth a bad omen for hospitals, S&P Global warns

Fierce Healthcare August 20, 2024
Dave Muoio

The upward trajectory of Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment is likely to become an issue for hospitals and other healthcare providers forced to contend with plans’ prior authorization requirements and other reimbursement headwinds, S&P Global warned in a recent report.

As of 2023, more than half of the Medicare population is enrolled in a MA plan, and payments to these plans now exceed traditional Medicare. That tally is likely to keep rising, S&P wrote, due to insurers’ viewing the market as a long-term growth opportunity, MA plan marketing as “zero-premium products” with additional benefits winning over consumers and general bipartisan political support for the program.

However, policy changes to reduce the program’s “higher-than-expected spending,” as highlighted by MedPAC earlier this year,...

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