Best & Worst Medicare Advantage Plans in 5 States: J.D. Power, 2023

Medicare Advantage plans are the fastest-growing segment of the health insurance market, and the chief factors influencing retention are trust and the ability to resolve problems or complaints, J.D. Power reported Tuesday.

“As the number of Medicare Advantage plan options continues to grow, competition for new members and retention are becoming increasingly critical,” Christopher Lis, managing director, global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “Additionally, in 2023, member experience and satisfaction are prominent drivers of CMS Star Ratings.”

Lis noted that his firm’s research demonstrates that consumer-facing brand attributes such as trust, reputation, reviews and customer ratings have become key drivers of satisfaction and customer loyalty.

“Most Medicare Advantage plans are performing well on the basics, yet there are opportunities for improvement in the areas of ease of finding care, care coordination and innovation around digital self-service,” he said.

J.D. Power’s study, which was redesigned for 2023, measures member satisfaction with Medicare Advantage plans on the following factors in order of importance:

Level of trust
Able to get health services how/when I want
Helping to save me time or money
Product/coverage offerings meet my needs
Ease of doing business
People — representatives
Call center agents
Resolving problems or complaints
Digital channels

The study was fielded from January through June, and is based on the responses of 5,887 members of Medicare Advantage plans in five states: California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Key Findings

The survey results showed that overall satisfaction with Medicare Advantage plans is generally good, at 652 (on a 1,000-point scale), which J.D. Power said is squarely in the good-to-great range of its newly redesigned U.S. Medicare Advantage Study index model. Plans perform highest on trust, ease of doing business and meeting member product/coverage needs.

Level of trust and resolving problems or complaints are the most highly correlated factors associated with members renewing their health plans, according to the study. Satisfaction with trust increases 353 points among those likely to renew with their health plan, compared with those who are unlikely to renew.

Similarly, satisfaction with problem resolution increases 351 points among those likely to renew.

The survey found that ease of finding care and digital tools are now the biggest pain points for Medicare Advantage plans. Just 31% of plan members said their plan made it easy for them to find care, and just 34% said they used two or more digital tools offered by their plan.

Overall customer satisfaction scores are 158 points higher, on average, when members say it is easy to find care and 62 points higher, on average, when members use two or more digital tools.

The most effective sources of information about Medicare Advantage plans, according to the survey results — the ones that spur customer satisfaction — are health plan ratings, information received directly from the plan itself and recommendations from friends, relatives and co-workers.