Data on Managed Care Reported by Researchers at Harvard Medical School (Year 1 Impact of Offering Non-Emergency Medical Transportation on Care Utilization Among Low-Income and Disabled Beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage): Managed Care

2026 MAR 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting out of Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “To examine the effects of offering non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) on care utilization among low-income and disabled beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage (MA). We leveraged the 2019 expansion of ‘primarily health related’ benefits to study the impact of offering NEMT on enrollees’ utilization of care.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Harvard Medical School, “We used an event study model to compare changes in care for beneficiaries enrolled in plans that began offering a NEMT benefit in 2019 versus those in plans that did not. We used MA plan benefit package, Medicare enrollment, and MA encounter data for years 2016-2019 to identify plans offering NEMT, low-income and disabled beneficiaries enrolled in these plans, and model covariates. Offering of NEMT was associated with little change in utilization. We found a statistically insignificant 1.4% increase in the probability of receiving an annual wellness visit (Coef. 0.006; 95% CI, -0.007-0.018, p = 0.371) and a 4.0% decrease in ambulance use days (Coef. -0.012; 95% CI, -0.033-0.010, p = 0.290). We did not find evidence of statistically significant or economically meaningful changes in outpatient evaluation and management, procedure, imaging, and emergency room visits. In the first year of NEMT benefit offerings by MA plans, we found no detectable evidence of associated changes in care utilization among low-income and disabled beneficiaries.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Conclusions about the potential value of coverage for NEMT are limited by the short evaluation period and lack of data on NEMT benefit generosity and use.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Year 1 Impact of Offering Non-Emergency Medical Transportation on Care Utilization Among Low-Income and Disabled Beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage. Health Services Research, 2026;61(2). Health Services Research can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Health Services Research - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-6773)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Michael E. Chernew, Dept. of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Additional authors for this research include Katherine M. Ianni and J. Michael McWilliams.

Publisher contact information for the journal Health Services Research is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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