A Brief look at Medicare Advantage Enrollment Trends

March 22, 2023

Insurers with Medicare Advantage (MA) business and prescription drug plans (PDPs) compete by offering new pricing and product options to beneficiaries during the Annual Election Period (AEP), which runs annually from October 15^th through December 7^th. Many companies conduct their post-enrollment period competitive assessments by using tools such as Mark Farrah Associates’ (MFA) Medicare Business Online™ and Health Coverage Portal™. This brief illustrates year-over-year MA and PDP enrollment trends.

• Overall Medicare Eligibles increased from 63.9 million in March of 2022 to 65.2 million in March of 2023, as more and more Americans of the Baby Boom generation continue to enter retirement. This is an increase of 1.35 million beneficiaries.
   
• As of March 1, 2023, total MA membership stood at 31,753,301, with a net gain of over 2.3 million members from March 1, 2022.
   
• Medicare stand-alone PDPs covered 22,533,411 members, as of March 1, 2023, a loss of approximately (911,000), or a decrease of -3.9% from 23,444,389 on March 1, 2022.

Stay tuned for next month’s Healthcare Strategy report that will discuss this topic in more detail. As always, MFA will continue to report on important plan performance and competitive shifts across all segments.

About this Data

This brief is based on an analysis of enrollment data for Medicare Advantage (MA) and prescription drug plans (PDPs) released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Mark Farrah Associates’ Medicare Business Online™ simplifies the tracking of monthly MA and PDP enrollment by competitor. Enrollment data is updated monthly as soon as CMS releases new data.

About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)

Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Our product portfolio includes Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, 5500 Employer Health ^PLUS, and Health Plans USA™. For more information about these products, refer to the informational videos and brochures available under the Our Products section of the website or call 724-338-4100.

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