CMS rolled out its star rating system in 2011 to inform beneficiaries of private Medicare Advantage health plans’ quality on preventive care, management of chronic conditions and customer feedback. The study of almost 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries showed seniors were more likely to enroll in a plan by 9.5 percentage points for each star a Medicare Advantage plan received.
That’s good news for CMS, which sent letters to more than 500,000 beneficiaries enrolled in any of 26 poorly performing plans last November, encouraging them to choose better quality alternatives. CMS has also made enrolling in the 26 plans more onerous by adding extra steps on its website requiring a separate call to the private plan, rather than a streamlined process for plans with more stars.
Rural, poor and black subgroups showed a weaker tendency toward better-rated plans but still followed the same upward trend of the aggregate population.
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