CMS Releases Part II of the 2022 Medicare Advantage and Part D Advance Notice
Releasing Medicare Advantage and Part D payment information earlier could help plans in light of COVID-19
Today, CMS is releasing Part II of the Calendar Year (CY) 2022 Medicare Advantage and Part D Advance Notice to provide Medicare health and prescription drug plans with earlier notification of proposed payment changes. This announcement is being made approximately three months earlier than usual to provide Medicare Advantage organizations and Part D sponsors more time to take this information into consideration as they prepare their bids for 2022. The earlier release will help Medicare Advantage and Part D plans to better address estimating 2022 plan costs, in light of the uncertainty associated with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
CMS uses the Advance Notice and Rate Announcement process each year to adopt certain payment policies for Medicare Advantage and Part D as well as the benefit parameters for Part D plans. The proposed changes described in Advance Notice Part I and today’s Advance Notice Part II are expected to increase plan revenue by 2.82%. In addition, CMS is soliciting input on how to improve Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings, the quality ratings system for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. In particular, CMS is seeking feedback on a potential COVID-19 vaccination measure to encourage Medicare beneficiaries to receive the vaccine when one becomes available.
Coupled with the previously released Advance Notice Part I that includes information about Medicare Advantage risk adjustment for 2022, public comments on both parts of the Advance Notice must be submitted by November 30, 2020. The Medicare Advantage and Part D payment policies for 2022, discussed in both Part I and Part II of the Advance Notice, will be finalized in the 2022 Rate Announcement published no later than April 5, 2021.
Finally, for 2022, CMS is proposing to apply the 5.9% statutory minimum coding intensity adjustment to risk scores. For 2023 and beyond, CMS is reassessing how we calculate the Medicare Advantage coding pattern and what the appropriate level of adjustment should be. We are also considering whether to propose revising the Medicare Advantage ratebook to base it on data about beneficiaries with Part A and Part B, instead of beneficiaries with Part A or Part B as is currently the case. We intend to issue a request for information on this topic soon.
For a fact sheet on Part II of the 2022 Advance Notice, please visit: www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2022-medicare-advantage-and-part-d-advance-notice-part-ii
To view Part I and Part II of the 2022 Advance Notice, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Health-Plans/MedicareAdvtgSpecRateStats/Announcements-and-Documents.html and select “2022.”
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