Health Topics

• Data Development
• Health Care Reform
• Health Information Technology
• Medicaid and CHIP
• Medicare
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse
• Payment Policies and Costs
• Public and Population Health
• Quality and Health System Functioning
• State Health Policy

•  

Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Plan Tracker: Interactive Online Resource

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans now cover about 12.1 million of the nearly 46 million people in the Medicare population, up from about 8 million in 2006. Mathematica developed the Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Plan Tracker, an interactive online resource on MA plans, for the Kaiser Family Foundation. To help people monitor changes in private plans in Medicare, the tracker is regularly updated with new data. The tracker provides local, regional, and national information about plans, including HMOs, regional and local PPOs, private fee-for-service plans, and special needs plans. It also includes current information on stand-alone prescription drug plans offered, along with enrollment data for MA and stand-alone drug plans. The online tool can be used to monitor changes in enrollment over time within counties, states, and nationally.

Data Sources

The following Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data files are used to generate the output available:

Medicare Advantage Data

• Monthly MA Enrollment by State/County/Contract: This monthly file provides information on the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled by MA contracts. Enrollment is displayed by state and county.
• Monthly Enrollment by Contract/Plan/State/County: Beginning with its first release documenting May 2008 data, this monthly file provides data on the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled by MA contracts. This file provides enrollment data at the plan and county levels.
• MA Landscape File: This file provides information about every MA contract currently offering plans.
• MA State/County Penetration: This file is released on a monthly basis (first relase May 2008) and presents the number of Medicare beneficiaries eligible to enroll in a MA contract for each county in the United States as well as the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a MA contract for each county.
• Special Needs Plan (SNP) Comprehensive Report: This monthly file, created from the CMS Health Plan Management System, provides information on the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in SNPs by contract.
• Special Needs Plan (SNP) Landscape File: This file provides information about SNP contracts currently in operation.
• Medicare Advantage Ratebook: This file provides information on the Medicare managed care payment rate for each county in the United States. There are two plan payment rates for years 2001 and 2004 because of changes in legislation. These data use the second payment rates (i.e. the rates that took effect after the legislation occurred) for all calculations in those years.
• Medicare Health Plan Compare/ Medicare Options Compare/CMS Personal Plan Finder: This database, which goes by many names, provides information on plans that are available for new enrollment in the given year.
• Market Penetration, Quarterly State/County Data File: This file provides information on the number of Medicare beneficiaries eligible to enroll in a Medicare managed care plan for each county in the United States.
• Geographic Service Area Report: This file provides information on the enrollment in each Medicare managed care contract at the county level.
• The Non-Renewal Report: CMS releases this file at the end of each year. Each file provides information about Medicare+Choice/Medicare Advantage plans that did not renew their contracts to participate in the program during the contract renewal period in September. These "withdrawals" take effect the following year.

Prescription Drug Plan Data

• PDP Landscape File: This file provides information about each prescription drug plan (PDP) currently available.
• The Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder: This tool, which can be accessed on the Medicare.gov website, provides a detailed description of each plan operating in the United States. It lists information about plan premiums, deductibles, and cost sharing for each plan.
• Monthly PDP Enrollment by State/County/Contract: This monthly file provides information on the number of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled by Medicare Prescription Drug Plans. Enrollment is displayed by state and county.

General information on county characteristics, such as whether a county is considered an urban or rural county, is from the Health Resources and Service Administration's Area Resource File.

Publications

"Tracking Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Plans" (monthly electronic newsletter)
"Strategies for Simplifying the Medicare Advantage Market" (July 2009)
"Medicare Advantage In 2008" (June 2008)
"Do We Know If Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans Are Special?" (January 2008)
"Private Plans in Medicare: A 2007 Update" (March 2007)
"Premiums and Cost-Sharing Features in Medicare's New Prescription Drug Program, 2006" (March 2006)
"The Growth of Private Plans in Medicare, 2006" (March 2006)
"The Landscape of Private Firms Offering Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage in 2006" (March 2006)