Families USA responds to CMS Request for Information on Medicare Advantage Data

Families USA submitted comments on the Medicare Program; Request for Information on Medicare Advantage Data (i.e., 2024 Medicare Advantage Data RFI).

As Medicare Advantage (MA) plans now provide health care coverage to more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries, it is critical that policymakers ensure the MA program is providing access to high-quality, affordable, and equitable care that Medicare beneficiaries deserve and can count on.

However, a lack of meaningful transparency across the MA program poses a significant barrier to ensuring MA plans and organizations are fulfilling their obligations to beneficiaries and their families.

Families USA applauds the steps the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken to date to promote transparency throughout the MA Program. We urge the administration to use its existing regulatory authority to go even further.

In particular, Families USA calls on CMS to:

1. Improve the accuracy and completeness of MA encounter data and enrollment data on beneficiary demographic characteristics,
2. Require the collection of more comprehensive data on the use of supplemental benefits and to make that data public; and
3. Promote greater transparency of ownership among MA plans and organizations, as well as the health care providers that may be owned by MA organizations.