Medicare Advantage pays hospitals 8% less than traditional Medicare

Editor's Note

Medicare Advantage plans paid hospitals 8% less for hospital services than fee-for-service Medicare in 2009 and 2012, finds this study.

Researchers also found that commercial insurers paid hospitals much higher than Medicare Advantage or fee-for-service Medicare.

Some of this difference is because of higher prices commercial plans pay for profitable service lines, the researchers say.

1Laurence C. Baker is a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University, in California, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2M. Kate Bundorf is a professor of health research and policy at Stanford University and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.