Medicare Advantage insurers get bigger rating bonuses

MMore than two dozen Medicare Advantage insurers received higher quality labels for 2024, based on a STAT assessment of new data released by the federal government on July 2.

Ten health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare and CVS Health’s Aetna, have received crucial upgrades to some of their offerings, allowing them to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in additional taxpayer-funded bonuses.

Last month, the federal government said it would recalculate this year’s Medicare Advantage star ratings, which serve as a shorthand for an insurance plan’s quality. Federal courts required the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make changes after ruling that the agency made mistakes with its own methodology.