The Impact of Payment Reform on Rural Medicare Advantage Enrollment and Quality

This project examines the implications of changes in Medicare Advantage (MA) payment implemented in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and in the current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) demonstration of quality-based bonus payments. This research also focuses on key issues including: how the changes to MA payment, including bonus payments linked to quality-based star ratings, impact the plans available to rural beneficiaries, the likely impact of these changes on enrollment in MA plans, and the differences in MA plan quality both regionally and in rural and urban areas.

Poster presented by Leah Kemper, Timothy McBride, and Abigail Barker of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and the RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis on June, 2013.