Medicare advantage plans

On January 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the latest enrollment figures for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP. As of October 2023, over 66.6 million people are enrolled in Medicare; more than 34 million are enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare, and close to 32.6 million are enrolled in Medicare Advantage or other health plans. Over 87.2 million enrollees have Medicaid and CHIP. More than 80.2 million individuals have Medicaid and over 7 million have coverage through CHIP. Over 12 million individuals are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and are counted in the enrollment figures for both programs.

The CMS Office of Minority Health (OMH) has published a new report, Trends in Racial, Ethnic, Sex, and Rural-Urban Inequities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage: 2009-2018. Since 2015, CMS OMH has published annual reports highlighting inequities in the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide. Until now, these reports have focused on comparisons within a single year. This new report analyzes historical trends in inequities by race, ethnicity, sex, and geography among Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans nationwide.