The policy community generally has assumed Medicare Advantage (MA) plans negotiate hospital payment rates similar to those for commercial insurance products and well above those in traditional Medicare. After surveying senior hospital and health plan executives, we found, however, that MA plans nominally pay only 100-105 percent of traditional Medicare rates and, in real economic terms, possibly less. Respondents broadly identified three primary reasons for near-payment equivalence: statutory and regulatory provisions that limit out-of-network payments to traditional Medicare rates, de facto budget constraints that MA plans face because of the need to compete with traditional Medicare and other MA plans, and a market equilibrium that permits relatively lower MA rates as long as commercial rates remain well above the traditional Medicare rates. We explored a number of policy implications not only for the MA program but also for the problem of high and variable hospital prices in commercial insurance markets.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
1
3%
Other
4
11%
Unknown
12
32%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 87. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 May 2026.
All research outputs
#622,552
of 34,675,053 outputs
Outputs from Health Affairs
#1,201
of 7,163 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,680
of 301,271 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Health Affairs
#14
of 79 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,675,053 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,163 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 69.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 301,271 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 79 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
