Medicare Advantage in the headlines: 7 recent updates

Here are seven Medicare Advantage updates Becker’s has reported since July 17. 

1. Medicare Advantage plans available in the most socially-vulnerable counties in the U.S. tend to have lower star ratings than those in less vulnerable counties, a study published in JAMA Network Open found.

2. Centene will exit a handful of state Medicare Advantage markets in 2025, CEO Sarah London said. On an investor call, Ms. London said the exits are designed to align with the company’s longer-term strategy to focus on individuals eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.
3. Medicare Advantage enrollees were less likely to receive burdensome treatments or transfers in the last months of life compared to their peers in traditional Medicare, a study published in JAMA Health Forum found.
    
4. Bloomington, Minn.-based HealthPartners plans to split with UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans at the end of 2024. In a letter to patients, the system’s co-executive medical directors alleged that UnitedHealthcare denies and delays payments “at a rate unlike any other insurer in our market.”
5. Humana CEO Jim Rechtin is putting his support behind federal legislation aimed at reforming the Medicare Advantage prior authorization process.
6. Humana acquired a minority stake in Healthpilot, an AI-powered Medicare enrollment platform.
7. UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty touted the company’s home healthcare visits for its Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. The comments from the largest MA insurer came shortly after a July Wall Street Journal investigation found that between 2018 and 2021, insurers received $50 billion for diagnoses they added to members’ charts. Many of these diagnoses were “questionable,” according to the investigation.

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