Becker's Healthcare December 30, 2025
Switching from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare was associated with increased mental health visits, along with a shift toward nurse practitioners and away from emergency and internal medicine specialists, according to a December study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined mental health utilization patterns 12 months before and 12 months after beneficiaries switched from MA to traditional Medicare in 2018. The analysis used MA encounter data, traditional Medicare claims, and OneKey provider directory data to track visit frequency and provider specialty. Of the 32,710 beneficiaries who switched coverage that year, 1,184 (representing 11,015 claims) met the study’s criteria of having at least one mental health visit in both...
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