Today, 1 in 3 of the 57 million Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in private health plans, known as Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Although growth in Medicare per capita spending has slowed in recent years, there is still a compelling need to improve quality and control costs as roughly 10,000 baby boomers a day age into Medicare coverage.

As beneficiaries continue to choose MA plans, the potential payoff of increased plan competition on both quality and price grows as well.

Here are 4 ways to maximize the potential of Medicare Advantage plans:

  1. Develop tools that can help beneficiaries understand how the various components of health insurance.
  2. Invest in and improve consumer-support tools, like the online Plan Finder, for both MA plans and Part D prescription drug plans.
  3. Assess whether counseling programs are effective in improving consumer decisions. Currently, a relatively small number of beneficiaries use SHIP, and it is unclear why.
  4. Standardize the types and number of MA product offerings, constraining them to three levels—standard, standard-plus, and enhanced—to facilitate beneficiary comparison-shopping on price and quality.

Read the full article on Medicare advantage plans by John Bertko, Paul B. Ginsburg, Steven M. Lieberman, Erin Trish, and Joseph Antos at Brookings