5 Things to Know About the "Crosswalking" of MA Ratings

1. Medicare ranks MA plans on a quality scale, and pays bonuses to plans with high ratings. If an MA plan is not set to receive a financial bonus, companies will merge patients into higher score plans.
2. Using this tactic, health insurance companies are able to boost the ratings of Medicare Advantage plans without actually improving on quality measures.
3. Insurers have used this tactic over the past few years. Insurers shuffled roughly 1.45 million Medicare Advantage members into higher-rated plans for 2018, according to WSJ.
4. Paul Ginsburg, PhD, a professor at the University of Southern in Los Angeles and a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, told WSJ crosswalking "is nothing more than gaming the system."
5. The budget deal signed into law in February is expected to cut down on the practice of crosswalking, according to WSJ.

Source: Becker's Hospital Review
Source URL: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/payer-issues/how-healt...

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