Supplemental Benefits In Medicare Advantage (Hearing, Vision, Dental) Under Discussion

On November 4, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) discussed how to standardize a set of three or four benefits—potentially hearing, vision and dental services—in Medicare Advantage (MA) for a future recommendation to Congress after MedPAC staff found that people have a more challenging time comparing plans when they have a variety of options.

MedPAC is a non-partisan independent legislative branch agency that provides the U.S. Congress with analysis and policy advice on the Medicare program. MedPAC Commissioners agreed that it would be best to standardize a core set of three or four benefits, ideally hearing, vision and dental benefits. The remainder should be left unstandardized, some commissioners emphasized, since this is where care innovation occurs.

Commission members pointed out that standardization could be a challenge with narrow networks, and plans may have difficulty conforming to a universal standard if they don’t have the in-network providers to meet the standard. MedPAC staffers emphasized there is still a lot researchers don’t know about utilization and spending for supplemental benefits. Some MA encounter data will be made available beginning in 2023, but increasing the specificity of what is available could help commissioners make clearer recommendations on how to standardize options.