Medicare Advantage

Private Insurers Overcharge Medicare By $1.3 Billion

From washingtonpost.com

December 16th, 2008

washingtonpost.com — Under a program called Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays insurers for delivering Medicare benefits. The insurance companies' payments are based, in part, on their anticipated revenues and expenses. If the companies had been more accurate, they could have spent much of that $1.3 billion on enhanced health benefits or lower monthly premiums, and they still would have maintained their expected profit margin, the Government Accountability Office said in a report expected to be released Thursday.

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Medicare Advantage Organizations: Actual Expenses and Profits Compared to Projections for 2006

Insurers pocket an extra $1.33 billion in profits previously projected to go to health benefits

By James C. Cosgrove
United States Government Accountability Office

December 11th, 2008

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House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA) today released a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans spent less on health care services than they projected in 2006. As a result, private plans pocketed an extra $1.33 billion in profits – 65 percent more than estimated in their 2006 bids. This is the second year in a row that MA organization profits exceeded their own projections. A June GAO report showed that in 2005, MA plans earned an extra $1.14 billion in profit. more »

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Bush Administration's Medicare Advantage Plan Costs Double

Submitted by Armand Biroonak

October 13, 2008

The Bush Administration’s privatized “Medicare Advantage” plans are rising twice as fast as costs in traditional Medicare, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Source

Congressional Quarterly