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Bad News On Medicare Advantage Star Ratings The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced 2025 Star ratings and the news was not good. The percentage of contracts obtaining a 4 Star or greater rating dropped to about 40%. Just 62% of all Medicare Advantage Part D (MA-PD) enrollees will be in a 4 Star or greater plan. These are big drops from even a sluggish 2024 Star year. Humana saw the biggest drops among large national plans, with United and Elevance having some reductions and Centene continuing to score low. Aetna was roughly flat in terms of achievement. The poor Big Plan results drove the estimated enrollment in high-performing plans down. Big Plans have about three-quarters of the MA market. Humana and United are challenging their ratings. United has filed a lawsuit against CMS. My new company, Lilac Software, will have a blog and an infographic on all

Despite Some Cutbacks, MA Plans Are Going Big For Special Needs Plans Given their potential for greater margin, Medicare Advantage (MA) plans appear to be making heavy investments in Special Needs Plans (SNPs) in 2025, even as they contract other products in certain areas. Done right, SNPs can generate 6.4% margins, compared with 2.8% for MA generally. This comes from 2021 data. As well, the plans are reacting to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) making the integration of Medicare and Medicaid funding streams a huge priority. The growth continues a trend. SNP enrollment is about 6.6 million people this year, up 255% from 10 years ago, 125% from five years ago and 16% from 2023. SNP enrollment is projected to hit 7.2 million in 2025. UnitedHealth Group, Humana, Elevance Health, CVS Health, Centene and Molina are all investing heavily. Some plans are contracting base benefits even in

Harris Announces Medicare At Home, Expands Healthcare Agenda Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced a new Medicare at Home initiative. She would provide home health aide and other in-home supports for seniors and the disabled in Medicare. This would extend the current scope of benefits officially from short-term home care to chronic home care. I have proposed a comprehensive long-term care program paid through Medicaid and with buy-ins by seniors. As well, Harris wants to have hearing and vision coverage added to the traditional program. She would pay for most of the initiatives by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations and instituting pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reforms. On other news, Harris is turning up the heat on Trump with a healthcare agenda. The Harris campaign thinks healthcare can be a swing issue and move undecideds to her side. In addition, a new study in Health Affairs has found that, while Medicare