We estimate that hundreds of millions are attributable to this benefit per month in 2024. Further, we find that the introduction of the giveback has a substantial effect on plan enrollment, with enrollment increasing >30% following the offer.

In MA, enrollees still pay Part B premiums even when a plan is "free." This can be $100s per month. Increasingly, plans have been using rebate dollars to "give back" Part B premiums to enrollees in their plans. This is becoming common, with ~19% of plans offering this benefit.

Major life update: this past week I was in Gouda, NL for the first cheese market of 2025 and came in second place in the guess-the-weight-of-the-cheese-wheels competition. This is probably my greatest cheese-related accomplishment.

Our findings also suggest that premium reductions were likely driven by price reductions, as opposed to differences in plan design.

There are a number of aspects that made this coalition unique. However, our findings point to the potential effectiveness of the approach.

We evaluate the Peak Health Alliance in Colorado, which began offering plans in 2020. With 2017–2021 plan data provided by the CO DORA, we found that Peak's rollout led to a 13%–17% decrease in average premiums in 2020-2021.

We discuss the variation in this trend across states (see below). While there are some known causes, the drivers of this state-to-state variation is largely unknown. Further, how important is this? What are the costs? This is all vital to study, yet often unexamined.

Finding #1: these plans still have a small footprint (~50k enrollees), but it's rapidly growing. Enrollment is more than doubling year over year. The largest category are plans designed specifically for Asian American beneficiaries.

3. When D-SNP networks were specialized, they tended to include a larger share of specialists that commonly treat conditions more prevalent among dually eligible enrollees.

I learned a lot from this paper. Some key findings.
1. Only about half D-SNP plan provider networks were at all distinct from provider networks in standard MA plans offered by the same insurer.
2. These specialized networks were much more common among Fully Integrated Dual Eligible Plans (FIDEs).

O’s O’s sign up in Baltimore

#baseball

First post on Bluesky! Hi everyone - I am a health economist and Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins BSPH.

Generally used the other app for following economics, health policy, baseball, and Baltimore food stuff.

Random Baltimore pic for #substance.

Help me find my friends on here please!