An Analysis of the 2018 Medicare Advantage Competition by Mark Farrah Associates

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), www.markfarrah.com, released an analysis brief presenting a snapshot of the Medicare landscape for 2018. MFA analyzed the latest Medicare market penetration statistics and offered 2018 insights from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare landscape reports. In addition, Mark Farrah Associates announced they released the 2018 plan information detail presented in their Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ product to give customers easy access to competitive Medicare Plan Finder (MPF) data and Star Quality Ratings (see also Mark Farrah Associates).

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans provide medical coverage for 20 million beneficiaries and with the Annual Election Period (AEP) upon us, health plans invested in this business are diligently marketing their products with anticipation of attracting more seniors to this competitive segment. Based on an assessment of the 2018 CMS landscape reports, MFA reported 3,259 distinct MA plan offerings are in the market lineup for the 2018 AEP which runs from October 15th through December 7th. This includes Medicare/Medicaid and Special Needs Plans (SNPs) and encompasses many national health plans, Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations, prominent regional health plans and specialized Medicare companies. Additionally, stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) being offered for 2018 is 795, an increase from the 757 plan offerings in 2017. Eighty-nine percent of MA plans will include Part D coverage and monthly premiums will range from $0 to $375, with 40% of those plans (excluding SNPs) available at the $0 plan premium level.

In order to help Medicare plans access and use Medicare Plan Finder data and Star Quality ratings more efficiently, Mark Farrah Associates maintains this data in a comparative database format in its Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ product. 2018 Plan Finder and Star Quality Ratings information is online now. Visit our website at www.markfarrah.com or call 724-338-4100 for more information.

To read the full text of "Spotlight on the 2018 Competitive Medicare Market", visit the Analysis Briefs library on Mark Farrah Associates' website. About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, and Health Plans USA™. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171017006043/en/

Keywords for this news article include: Health Policy, Medicare and Medicaid, Mark Farrah Associates.