(Press-News.org) Key points:
Approximately one in five of the veterans enrolled in a high-veteran Medicare Advantage (MA) plan did not incur any Medicare services paid by MA within a given year and instead received their health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
In 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) paid more $1 billion to MA plans for enrolling VA-enrollees who did not utilize Medicare services, with nearly 20% of that funding directed disproportionately to high-veteran MA plans.
The findings call for improved coordination between the VA and CMS in order to mitigate wasteful duplication of payments, especially amid VA budget constraints and growing veteran enrollment in MA plans.
Boston, MA—Medicare Advantage (MA) plans receive billions of federal dollars for enrolling veterans who receive no Medicare services, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study highlights the growing prevalence of high-veteran MA plans—defined as plans where 20% or more of enrollees are veterans—and their implications for veteran care, suggesting that the federal government is paying for health care twice for an increasing number of veterans.
The study will be published Monday, November 4, in Health Affairs.
“As veterans navigate the increasing complexities of health care options, our research aims to inform policymakers and stakeholders about the urgent need to optimize the use of federal resources in veteran care,” said corresponding author Jose Figueroa, associate professor of health policy and management. “This is particularly important given the substantial budget constraints that the Veterans Affairs system is currently facing.”
The researchers used a variety of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to examine veterans’ health care enrollment and usage and the cost to the federal government. They found that between 2016 and 2022, the number of veterans enrolling in MA plans increased, with a notable rise in those joining high-veteran MA plans. Approximately one in five veterans enrolled in these high-veteran MA plans did not incur any Medicare services paid by MA within a given year, a rate more than double that of veterans in other MA plans and nearly six times greater than the general MA population. Instead, the veteran-enrollees were much more likely to receive their health care at VHA facilities.
In 2020 alone, CMS paid more than $1.32 billion to MA plans for enrolling VA-enrollees who did not utilize Medicare services, which represents nearly a 60% increase from 2016. Nearly 20% of that funding was directed disproportionately to high-veteran MA plans. According to the researchers, this finding raises concerns about the efficiency of federal health care spending, given that MA plans are paid full capitated payments—set amounts of money per patient, regardless of their use of services—to cover comprehensive medical care. Meanwhile, the VA is prohibited from billing MA plans for Medicare-covered services.
“Our study holds important policy implications for leadership interested in improving the efficiency of federal resources for veteran care,” said Figueroa. “The results highlight the substantial extent of wasteful and duplicative federal spending on MA plans for enrolling veterans who do not receive any Medicare services.”
“The growth of high-veteran MA plans underscores the necessity to mitigate potentially wasteful payments and enhance care coordination between CMS and the VHA, especially amid ongoing enrollment growth in MA plans,” added first author Yanlei Ma, research associate in the Department of Health Policy and Management.
Other Harvard Chan authors included Jessica Phelan, Thomas Tsai, and Austin Frakt.
“Medicare Advantage Plans With High Numbers Of Veterans: Enrollment, Utilization, And Potential Wasteful Spending.” Yanlei Ma, Jessica Phelan, Kathleen Yoojin Jeong, Thomas C. Tsai, Austin B. Frakt, Steven D. Pizer, Melissa M. Garrido, Allison Dorneo, Jose F. Figueroa, Health Affairs, November 4, 2024, doi: 10.1377/ hlthaff.2024.00302
Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and events from our Studio.
###
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.
END
Federal government may be overpaying for veterans’ health care in Medicare Advantage plans
2024-11-04
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers awarded $2.5 million grant to increase lung cancer screenings in underserved communities
2024-11-04
A multidisciplinary team of experts in lung cancer screening and implementation science from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health was awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, an independent charitable organization, to spearhead a new initiative aimed at reducing disparities in lung cancer screening across Los Angeles County.
The award supports a new program called ...
New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption
2024-11-04
American Geophysical Union
4 November 2024
AGU Release No. 24-35
For Immediate Release
This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/new-trigger-tonga-eruption/
New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption
Previously unstudied data from a seismic wave, detected 750 kilometers from the seamount, may bolster tsunami early-warning systems.
AGU press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-5 hours)
Contact information for the researchers:
Mie Ichihara, University of Tokyo, ichihara@eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp, (UTC+9 hours)
WASHINGTON — Fifteen minutes before the ...
Lupus Research Alliance announces Lupus Research Highlights at ACR Convergence 2024
2024-11-04
Lupus Research Alliance Announces Lupus Research Highlights
at ACR Convergence 2024
Sixteen presentations of preclinical studies funded by the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA) to advance understanding of lupus and potential treatment pathways, including four oral presentations
Two reports by Lupus Therapeutics, the clinical affiliate of the LRA, and the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN) on promoting equity in lupus clinical trials, and identifying trial barriers and solutions
Fifteen industry-sponsored clinical research studies supported by Lupus Therapeutics and LuCIN, including positive results from the late-breaking Phase 3 dapirolizumab pegol trial ...
Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change
2024-11-04
Sea-level rise caused by climate change poses a serious and often unpredictable threat to coastal forests, and new tools are needed to help mitigate damage and allocate conservation resources.
A new study from North Carolina State University and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) details how satellite imagery may help identify forested areas that are being transformed into marshes and open water by sea-level rise, a process known as regime change. Marcelo Ardón, associate professor at NC State and co-author of a paper on the study, ...
The secrets of baseball's magic mud
2024-11-04
EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY NOVEMBER 4 AT 3:00 P.M. ET
The unique properties of baseball’s famed “magic” mud have never been scientifically quantified — until now.
In a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering) and School of Arts & Sciences (SAS) reveal what makes the magic mud so special.
“It spreads like a skin cream and grips like sandpaper,” says Shravan Pradeep, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Douglas J. ...
Toddlers understand concept of possibility
2024-11-04
Children too young to know words like “impossible” and “improbable” nonetheless understand how possibility works, finds new work with two- and three-year-olds.
The findings, the first to demonstrate that young children distinguish between improbable and impossible events, and learn significantly better after impossible occurrences, is newly published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Even young toddlers already think about the world in terms of possibilities,” said co-author Lisa Feigenson, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Laboratory for Child Development. “Adults do this all the time and here we wanted ...
Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes
2024-11-04
Scientists and environmental activists have consistently called for drastic reductions in meat production as a way to reduce emissions and, in doing so, combat climate change. However, a new analysis concludes that a smaller reduction, borne by wealthier nations, could remove 125 billion tons of carbon dioxide—exceeding the total number of global fossil fuel emissions over the past three years—from the atmosphere.
Small cutbacks in higher-income countries—approximately 13% of total production—would reduce the amount of land needed for cattle grazing, the researchers note, allowing forests to naturally ...
Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap
2024-11-04
**EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL NOV. 4 AT 3:00 P.M. EST**
A new study from researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine explains not only why some patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (or “wet” AMD) fail to have vision improvement with treatment, but also how an experimental drug could be used with existing wet AMD treatments to save vision.
Wet AMD, one of two kinds of AMD, is a progressive eye condition caused by an overgrowth of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensing tissue in ...
Did the world's best-preserved dinosaurs really die in 'Pompeii-type' events?
2024-11-04
Between about 120 million and 130 million years ago, during the age of dinosaurs, temperate forests and lakes hosted a lively ecosystem in what is now northeast China. Diverse fossils from that time remained pretty much undisturbed until the 1980s, when villagers started finding exceptionally preserved creatures, which fetched high prices from collectors and museums. This started a fossil gold rush. Both locals and scientists have now dug so much, their work can be seen from space―perhaps the most extensive paleontological excavations anywhere.
By the 1990s, it was clear that the so-called Yixian ...
Not the usual suspects: Novel genetic basis of pest resistance to biotech crops
2024-11-04
If left unchecked, insect pests can devastate crops. To minimize damage and reduce the need for insecticide sprays, crops have been genetically engineered to produce bacterial proteins that kill key pests but are not harmful to people or wildlife. However, widespread planting of such transgenic crops has led to rapid adaptation by some pests. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals a novel genetic basis of resistance to transgenic crops in one of the most important crop pests in the United States.
Researchers from the University of Arizona Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences used genomics to investigate the ...