The model matters. That was the take away of a new study—Health Outcomes Of Dually Eligible Beneficiaries Under Different Medicare Payment Arrangements—that compared consumer outcomes in three types of plans serving dual eligible consumers: at-risk Medicare Advantage (MA), fee-for-service Medicare Advantage, and traditional Medicare. The analysis found that integration of the service delivery model and financial incentives resulted in better consumer outcomes.

The analysis looked at 20 measures of outcomes. These included utilization measures like inpatient admissions, readmissions, avoidable emergency department (ED) use in total and for chronic diseases. The measures also included medication adherence rates for a variety of chronic conditions.

The analysis found that dual eligible consumers in at-risk MA plans had better outcomes in 17 of…