By CQ Staff
When it comes to picking Medicare Advantage plans, less may actually be more, according to a new Health Affairs article. Researchers from the Harvard Medical School's Department of Health Care Policy found that Medicare enrollment decisions would be made easier if the choices were simpler.
Researchers from the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy found that Medicare enrollment decisions would be made easier if the choices were simpler.
“More choice may be detrimental if there are too many or overly complex options, particularly in high-stakes decisions that involve health or money,’’ they wrote.
Especially when it comes to older Medicare beneficiaries with low cognitive skills, selecting among more than 15 plans can be difficult, researchers said.
They equated the difficulty of choosing a Medicare Advantage plan when faced with many options to the same problem some seniors have when picking a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan from among many offerings.
The authors found that when beneficiaries had 15 or fewer plans to choose from, Medicare Advantage enrollment increased. But as the number of plans increased so did the tendency for them to revert back to the traditional fee-for-service plans.
“To make a good choice, elderly Medicare beneficiaries must often sift through dozens of Medicare Advantage options and compare these with traditional Medicare and Medigap alternatives,’’ the article says. “In contrast, most working-age adults rarely choose from more than a handful of plans that have been preselected by their employers. Employers limit options to keep choices simple and to negotiate better benefits and rates for their workers.”
The authors suggested that “reforms that restructure and simplify choice in Medicare Advantage could improve beneficiaries’ enrollment decisions, reduce out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries with cognitive impairments and help invigorate value-based competition among managed care plans in Medicare.”