Medicare Advantage Plans Provide Valuable Services to Seniors, CMS’ Kuhn Writes in Letter to the Editor

A recent Washington Post editorial "erroneously criticized Medicare for paying private Medicare Advantage plans more per beneficiary than is paid under traditional fee-for-service Medicare," CMS Acting Deputy Administrator Herb Kuhn writes in a Post letter to the editor (Kuhn, Washington Post, 8/30).

In the editorial, the Post wrote that the "extra spending" on reimbursements to private MA plans compared with payments to traditional Medicare for equivalent benefits -- "more than $50 billion over the next five years -- makes an already financially unstable Medicare program more expensive" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 8/21).

In his letter, Kuhn says the editorial's "statement 'Some of the money is plowed back into extra benefits'" was "misleading," adding, "In fact, Congress requires that plans invest all of the difference between what we pay them and their expected costs for basic Medicare benefits in enhanced benefits for enrollees." He notes that these benefits "often exceed those available in regular Medicare."

MA plans are "especially important for people whose incomes are too high for Medicaid enrollment but not high enough to pay for Medigap policies to cover costs not paid by traditional Medicare," Kuhn says. He continues, "Medicare Advantage enrollees are more likely to get all-important preventive care -- immunizations, cancer screening and diabetes management -- that will result in better quality of life and lower long-term health care costs." Kuhn concludes, "To cut payments to Medicare Advantage plans, and risk reducing beneficiary access and benefits, would be penny-wise and pound-foolish" (Washington Post, 8/30).