Medicare Managed Care: Observations about Medicare Cost Plans

December 18, 2009 Medicare cost plans enroll a small number of beneficiaries compared to Medicare Advantage (MA), Medicare's managed care program in which the plans accept financial risk if their costs exceed fixed payments received for each enrolled beneficiary. Despite the small enrollment, industry representatives stated that cost plans provide a managed care option in areas that traditionally had few or no MA plans. Current law allows existing cost plans to continue operating unless specific MA plans of sufficient enrollment serve the same area. In such cases, the cost plan must discontinue serving that area beginning in 2011. The . . .