Editor's note: On March 23, Chartis published a revised version of its Medicare Advantage enrollment report. The new report, based on updated data from CMS, showed that Medicare Advantage growth did not slow in 2022 compared to previous years. Medicare Advantage growth rose by at least 2.7 million beneficiaries in 2022, compared to 2.3 million in 2021.
The pace of Medicare Advantage growth slowed in 2022, a report from healthcare consulting group Chartis found.
At least 1.5 million new beneficiaries enrolled in MA plans for 2023 — down from 2.3 million in 2022, 2.2 million in 2022 and 1.9 million in 2021.
Enrollment in traditional Medicare continued to shrink, but at a slower pace than in previous years, according to Chartis' report. Enrollment in the traditional program declined by 339,000 for 2023, down from losses of 400,000 in 2022 and 1 million in 2021.
Special needs plans enrollment grew 20 percent for 2023 enrollment, reaching a total of 5.5 million enrollees. Enrollment in D-SNPs accounted for two-thirds of the growth in MA this year, Chartis found.
Enrollment in MA has reached nearly 31.2 million beneficiaries, according to a February report from CMS.
UnitedHealthcare is this year's MA winner
UnitedHealthcare accounted for 55 percent of new enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans this year, Chartis found. In previous years, this figure was between 30 and 40 percent.
Humana accounted for 22.5 percent, and nonprofit BCBS plans accounted for 13 percent.
On Feb. 23, Chartis added the following statement to the report:
"In the recently released February CMS Medicare Advantage enrollment data, we noticed a material difference from January's enrollment data, which is rare. Many leading organizations — including ours — regularly use CMS’ January data to determine annual enrollment trends. We are in the process of analyzing and updating our analysis now based on the updated data from CMS, as we find it to be more reflective of the true enrollment performance. From what we can tell at this point, the findings aren't a sizable departure from what we've reported, but we will be updating our analysis accordingly."
Becker's will update this article when more information becomes available.
Read the full analysis here.