Abstract
Medicare Advantage (MA) provider prices are, on average, similar to those of traditional Medicare; however, prices may vary across hospitals or insurers. Using national data, we found that MA prices averaged 97 percent of traditional Medicare prices. Although only 39 percent of hospitals in our sample had average inpatient MA prices within 5 percent of traditional Medicare prices, MA prices varied far less than commercial or Medicaid prices.
The full study can be viewed at Health Affairs.
Mackleby, G., Bejarano, G., Meyers, D., Trish, E. & Meiselbach, M. (2025). Inpatient Prices in Medicare Advantage Vary Modestly Across and Within Hospitals. Health Affairs, 10.1377/hlthaff.2025.00408
