Medicare Advantage (MA) is a health insurance program that provides an eligible person with the United States' Medicare benefits. Medicare Advantage differs from the original Medicare model, which offered a standard plan provided directly by the state. In contrast, Medicare Advantage is offered by a private provider.
The term originated with the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which offered Medicare beneficiaries this option, instead of receiving these benefits through the original Medicare plan (Parts A and B). These programs were known as Medicare+Choice or Part C plans.
Pursuant to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the compensation and business practices changed for insurers that offer these plans, and "Medicare+Choice" plans became known as Medicare Advantage plans.
Read more about Medicare Advantage: Overview, Effects of The Health Reform, What Is Being Measured?, Where Does The Information For The Overall Plan Rating Come From?
Famous quotes containing the word advantage:
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,—the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)