MA stargazing reveals a different story

All the Medicare Advantage trend lines seem like they are northward bound. Enrollment, the number of plans, the number of companies selling those plans — they’re all up. So Avalere Health’s report last month on the percentage of beneficiaries in highly rated plans stood out — and not in a good way.

Related: Medicare Advantage Enrollment Keeps Growing

CMS’ Star Rating program grades the quality of Medicare Advantage plans on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the highest quality.

Using data that the CMS made available in October, Avalere Health calculated that approximately 11.9% of the enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans that include drug coverage are in 5-star plans, which isn’t a big difference from the 11% of enrollees in 5-star plans last year.

But the consulting firm’s numbers show that the proportion of enrollees in 4.5-star plans dropped sharply, from 31.4% last year to 19.6% this year, and the proportion in 4-star plans dipped from 38.8% last year to 30.9% this year.