A Brief Look at Year-Over-Year Medicare Advantage Membership

March 20, 2025

Health companies with Medicare Advantage (MA) business and Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) compete each year by offering new pricing and product options to beneficiaries during the Annual Election Period (AEP). Plans then begin to analyze final enrollment results in February, and then again in April and May, after the Open Enrollment Period (OEP), to evaluate their standing and assess which competitors gained and lost members during the last AEP and OEP.

Results for the AEP, which occurs from October 15^th through December 7^th, are now available! 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™.

• Overall Medicare Eligibles increased from 66.6 million in March of 2024 to 68.1 million in March of 2025. This is an increase of 2.2%, or 1.5 million beneficiaries.
   
• As of March 1, 2025, total MA membership stood at 35,068,236, with a net gain of nearly 1.3 million members from March 1, 2024.
   
• Medicare stand-alone PDPs covered 23,484,389 members, as of March 1, 2025, a gain of approximately 384,000 enrollees or an increase of 1.7% from 23,099,944 on March 1, 2024.

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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