As of December 1, 2017, total Medicare Advantage (MA) membership stood at 20.1 million, representing approximately 35% of the 60 million Americans eligible for Medicare, according to the latest analysis brief from McMurray, Pa.-based Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), released in late December.
While 81% of the MA enrollees represent policies purchased by individuals, only 19% of total Medicare Advantage members originated through an employer-group health plan as of December 2017. However, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Advantage enrollment reports aggregated by Mark Farrah Associates in Medicare Business Online™, this segment continues to show steady growth.
As of December 1, 2017, MFA reported 3.7 million of total Medicare Advantage members were enrolled in employer-group Medicare Advantage plans, or Medicare Advantage employer-group waiver plans (MA-EGWPs). Group MA membership grew 15%, adding 488,000 more beneficiaries, year-over-year, and increased by 23% since 2014.
The top five carriers covered 80% of all group Medicare Advantage enrollees. UnitedHealth maintained its leading position as the top group Medicare Advantage organization in the country, with over 1.15 million enrolled. Aetna and Kaiser Foundation Group trailed UnitedHealth’s employer-group MA membership with 548K and 525K, respectively. Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan also command a sizeable stake in the Group Medicare market.
As employer-group Medicare Advantage continues to be a viable opportunity for employers, retirees and Medicare Advantage organizations, Mark Farrah Associates will continue to monitor enrollment and industry shifts in this competitive segment. To read the full text of “Membership Trends in Employer-Group Medicare Advantage“, visit the Analysis Briefs library on Mark Farrah Associates’ website.
About Mark Farrah Associates: MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, and Health Plans USA™.
Many larger (Fortune 100) companies have discontinued retiree plans of any flavor and replaced them with retiree medical HRA offerings. I would expect to see more of this going forward for large companies.
Public sector groups and unions could eventually be the only ones with employer sponsored retiree health insurance.