Medicare Advantage plans may cover items not associated with health, such as pet food

Some Medicare Advantage plans offer additional additional benefits to increase their health, although a new report indicates that these benefits have extended to direct health effects – such as golf equipment, pets and more.

A report in Manhattan Magazine notes to the Manhattan Institute that Medicare Advantage, which was developed as a means to make Medicare more costly effective by making private insurance companies the management of health coverage for registrants, witnessed the expansion of its supplementary benefits over time.

The program witnessed fixed registration gains and wider savings in mid -2010 by removing expensive procedures unnecessarily and using these funds to provide more premiums at reasonable prices and reduce costs outside the pocket. The supplementary benefits of Medicare Advantage initially were initially limited to additional benefits such as dental plans and vision that were related to health.

congress enacts a change to Medicare Advantage plans through the 2018 Budget Budget law, which expanded to allow them to provide supplementary benefits that had “reasonable expectations to improve or preserve the comprehensive function” for registrants who deal with chronic diseases.

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Although the additional advantages are still required for health or hospitals, the definition of fashion allowed the use of these benefits on expenses like groceries, as well as sports and social activities that can provide a less direct boost to the health of one of the registered.

The special benefits in Medicare Advantage plans vary by the provider, but the City Journal report indicated that some of them offer vegetables in golf courses and ski corridors, as well as food and pet supplies, fishing licenses and entry fees for social clubs.

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Golf courses in golf courses are some additional benefits related to sports provided by some Medicare feature plans. (Istock / Istock)

The eligibility to obtain the special supplementary benefits of chronic patients (SSBCI), as well as the benefits, have grown, as the majority of beneficiaries of medical care have chronic medical conditions, while the plan’s payments have increased.

The coding has also become more complicated, and the growing enrollment by the relatively younger registered, has been created dynamic as the Medical Care Consultative Committee noted that it is “exaggerated for beneficiaries who have very low costs, and its initial performance for beneficiaries who have very high costs.”

This has increased Medicare’s payments to Medicare Advantage plans from 112 % to 120 % of the costs of the program to directly pay the beneficiaries of medical services from 2015 to 2024. In addition, the report indicated that excess payments to plans increased from $ 18 billion to $ 77 billion every year, which were directed to part of the extensive additional benefits.

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The Congress expanded the additional benefits of Medicare Advantage on the Budget Budget Bill 2018. (Samuel Corome / Getty Emokires / Getty Emociz)

“The Medicare Advantage feature was a substitute for providing costs for traditional medical care. But the extra payments of the plans have left taxpayers on the hook for an additional trillion dollars over the next decade,” wrote his colleague Chris Bob at the Manhattan Institute.

The report indicated that the idea of ​​reducing excess payments to Medicare Advantage has received support from two parties in Congress and can provide spending discounts in the Republican tax reduction package in Congress to compensate for some of the lost tax revenues under the proposal.

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“If Republicans want to weaken a real deficit in the budget deficit – and get rid of democratic plans to redirect savings to expand other social programs – they must move to payments and use savings to reduce the burden on taxpayers,” Bob added.