
If VBID Is To Go, Ensure Flexibilities Remain For Plans
VBID should stay until CMS truly assesses what may be lost The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in December that it was sunsetting the Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) within the Medicare Advantage (MA) program as of the end of CY 2025. The move took many plans by surprise as it comes just 20 months after CMS said it was extending VBID until 2030. Sixty-two insurers covering more than 7 million beneficiaries are participating in VBID in 2025. These include big, medium, and small plans. CMS says it is sunsetting the program for a few reasons: I have often said that CMS has far too many reform pilots in the Medicare space, that they have not shown savings, and they are administratively expensive. I have called for the termination of most of them and the creation of a small subset of pilots with uniform rules to ensure administrative