Current law calls for the federal government to start reducing maximum payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2012.
For now, however, the Medicare Advantage market looks healthy, according to a team of analysts led by Marsha Gold of Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, N.J.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif., has published their Medicare Advantage market analysis in a new brief.
The analysts report that the country will have 1,974 Medicare Advantage plans in 2012, down 1.8% from 2,011 this year.
In 2012, the average Medicare beneficiary will be able to choose from a menu of 20 Medicare Advantage plans, including 10 health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, 4 local preferred provider organization (PPO) plans, 2 region PPO plans, and 3 private fee-for-service (FFS) plans.
The average rural beneficiary will be able to choose from a menu of 13 Medicare Advantage plans.