AJMC December 1, 2025
Angela Liu, PhD, Blake Ayers, MPH, Mark K. Meiselbach, PhD

Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with mental health diagnoses see more nurse practitioners and fewer internal medicine and emergency medicine specialists after switching to traditional Medicare.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To evaluate changes in mental health visits and specialties among beneficiaries with at least 1 mental health visit before and after switching from Medicare Advantage (MA) to traditional Medicare (TM).

Study Design: This study examines Medicare beneficiaries with mental health diagnoses who switched from MA to TM in 2018, analyzing their mental health utilization 12 months before and after the switch using MA encounter and TM claims data.

Methods: A longitudinal design was used, comparing mental health visits before and after the switch. We applied Wilcoxon signed rank tests to compare the total number...

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Topics: Insurance, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Mental Health, Patient / Consumer, Provider, Survey / Study, Trends
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