Medicare

New & Noteworthy

Medicare
Efforts to Root Out Improper Payments in Medicare
This brief explains fraud, waste, abuse, and improper payments in Medicare and describes actions to ensure Medicare program integrity.
What to Know About How Medicare Pays Physicians
This issue brief answers key questions about how Medicare pays physicians and other clinicians. It is focused primarily on traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage plans have flexibility to pay providers differently and there is no systematic publicly-available information on how much such plans pay providers.
5 Questions About Default Enrollment into Medicare Advantage Plans
In 2023, 2.8 million people newly enrolled in Medicare. More opted for traditional Medicare (54%) than Medicare Advantage (46%). Making Medicare Advantage the default option would have implications for how new beneficiaries get their coverage.
Health Policy 101: Medicare
Medicare provides health insurance coverage to 66 million people. It covers a comprehensive set of health care services, including hospitalizations, physician visits, and prescription drugs, along with post-acute care, skilled nursing facility care, home health care, hospice, and preventive services.

Data Visualization

The Facts About Medicare Spending

This interactive provides the facts on Medicare spending. Medicare, which serves 67 million people and accounts for 12 percent of the federal budget and 21 percent of national health spending, is often the focus of discussions about health expenditures, health care affordability and the sustainability of federal health programs.

Explore data on enrollment growth, Medicare spending trends overall and per person, growth in Medicare spending relative to private insurance, spending on benefits and Medicare Advantage, Part A trust fund solvency challenges, and growth in out-of-pocket spending by beneficiaries.