(Reuters) – The U.S. government on Friday announced proposed payments to health insurers for 2016 Medicare Advantage plans that it said were fairly stable compared with 2015.
The proposal, released in a document by a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sets out the parameters for reimbursement by the government for Medicare Advantage.
More than 16 million elderly or disabled people are enrolled in these plans with insurers including UnitedHealth Group Inc , Humana Inc and Aetna Inc.
On a call with reporters, Sean Cavanaugh, Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services division of HHS, said that the net effect of policies in the document would decrease payments to insurers by 0.9 percent in 2016.
But when coupled with coding changes, he said, insurers should expect an increase in revenue of 1.1 percent.