Trump Administration Gives MA Plans a Parting Gift With Hefty Payment Boost

January 22

As one of its final moves before the Trump administration officially ended, CMS on Jan. 15 gave Medicare Advantage (MA) plans a 2022 payment increase that impressed Wall Street analysts.

The 2022 Medicare Advantage and Part D Rate Announcement — which the administration released early in order to offer some additional guidance to plan sponsors during the COVID-19 pandemic — indicated that MA organizations will see an average reimbursement boost of 4.08% next year. That’s a significant improvement from the 2.8% rate increase that CMS projected in October, which Citi analyst Ralph Giacobbe suggested “represents a positive final parting shot by CMS and the Trump administration for the MA program, and de-risks any rate concerns for 2022.”

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Health Plan Weekly

Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.