CMS Changes Course on 2014 MA Rates, Announces Hike of More Than 3 Percent

The increase for Medicare Advantage plans for 2014 is similar to that for 2013, when it was 3.07 percent.

[BLOOMBERG BNA]

In a reversal of policy, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services April 1 said it will assume that Congress will override an impending cut in Medicare physician payment in 2014 and announced that Medicare Advantage rates will increase by more than 3 percent in 2014, rather than decline by more than 2 percent as had been proposed.

The average combined effect of the estimated Medicare Advantage growth rate and the fee-for-service growth percentage in 2014 is a 3.3 percent increase, rather than the agency’s draft estimate of a 2.2 percent drop, CMS said in the Announcement of Calendar Year (CY) 2014 Medicare Advantage Capitation Rates and Medicare Advantage and Part D Payment Policies and Final Call Letter.

The final estimate of the MA growth percentage in contract year 2014 is 2.96 percent, and the final estimate of the increase in the fee-for-service growth percentage is 3.53 percent.

Read more about the changes to Medicare Advantage rates at Bloomberg BNA.