When it comes to Star Ratings for Medicare plans, 2023 represented a return to the status quo after CMS stopped making adjustments related to the COVID-19 public health emergency that had largely inflated plans’ performance. Stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) were no exception to that trend, but they also continued a phenomenon seen in prior years where their overall scores trailed that of the more comprehensive Medicare Advantage-Prescription Drug (MA-PD) plans.
“In general, the PDP Star Ratings are somewhat lower than the average rating for MA contracts,” observes Shelly Brandel, a principal and consulting actuary at Milliman. That tends to happen every year, she adds, “so I think directionally the PDP Star Ratings have moved pretty similarly to MA Star Ratings [for 2023], but at a lower level.”