Featured Infographic   Payers Spend Big to Protect Lucrative Medicare Advantage Business   On Feb. 1, CMS released the 2024 Advance Notice for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans — the agency’s annual proposed update to methodologies used to calculate payments to the plans — and estimated a 1.03% pay hike for MA plans, on average, when accounting for an underlying risk score trend of 3.3%. However, insurers argued that the rule would result in a cut to plans due to technical changes in how risk scores are calculated, leading to higher premiums and fewer enrollee benefits. Just prior to releasing the Advance Notice, CMS also finalized a long-dreaded final rule that will allow the government to claw back billions of dollars’ worth of overpayments to MA organizations. The Better Medicare Alliance, which was founded in 2014 and listed several major insurers as its ally organizations, spent almost $1.1 million in lobbying in 2022, a 177% increase compared with the previous year, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. BMA recently commissioned a study estimating the potential detrimental effect of the proposed changes on premiums and benefits. It also spent $4.4 million on an ad campaign urging seniors to call their lawmakers to oppose potential cuts, which included a TV ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

Click to enlarge   MA enrollment is approaching 31 million lives as of February 2023, a 7.4% increase from this time last year, according to AIS Health’s analysis of data that included enrollment from the 2023 Medicare Annual Election Period. Meanwhile, lobbying spending among several major insurers reached a record high in 2022. While those firms have several different lines of business, they lobbied extensively on issues related to Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to OpenSecrets.   Click to enlarge   NOTES: Per DHP’s research methodology, the AEP analysis does not include about 331,000 lives enrolled in CMS’s Financial Alignment Initiative demonstration plans for Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles. Centene Corp.’s enrollment figures include its WellCare subsidiary. Kaiser Permanente’s enrollment represents the sum of its seven regional managed care organizations. GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp.’s enrollment includes its January 2022 acquisition of Triple-S Management Corp. It is also the parent company of Florida Blue and Capital Health Plan, Inc. Elevance Health’s lobbying data on Medicare & Medicaid was not available, as the insurer was listed as a subsidiary under “Blue Cross/Blue Shield” in the OpenSecrets database.   SOURCES: Open Secrets. AIS’s Directory of Health Plans. CMS.   From Health Plan Weekly Learn more about subscribing to AIS Health's publications.