A new study finds that lower-income adults with dental, vision, and hearing benefits through Medicare Advantage still face cost-related barriers to care
Lower-income adults with Medicare Advantage plans are more likely to have difficulty paying for dental, vision, and hearing services than higher-income beneficiaries—despite enrolling in plans that cover these benefits, according to a new study published in Health Affairs.
Medicare Advantage plans offer a private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare coverage for health insurance. The most common supplemental benefits are dental, vision, and hearing, with more than 90 percent of Medicare Advantage plans providing coverage for one or more. These supplemental benefits, which are not available through traditional Medicare, are largely funded by rebate dollars paid by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to the private insurers.
“The high need for dental, vision, and hearing care among Medicare recipients drives the high demand for supplemental benefits,” said Avni Gupta, a health policy researcher who recently earned her PhD in health policy and management from the NYU School of Global Public Health and is now at the Commonwealth Fund. “However, these added benefits are expensive for Medicare, which pays nearly $20 billion a year in rebates to Medicare Advantage insurers for supplemental benefits.”
In addition to Gupta, study authors include Diana Silver and José Pagán of the NYU School of Global Public Health, Sherry Glied of NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Kenton Johnston of Washington University in St. Louis, and David Meyers of Brown University School of Public Health.