Higher Enrollment in Medicare Advantage Plans Means that More Local Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups Lose Access to these Patients
Health insurers offering Medicare Advantage plans are narrowing their networks and favoring the national clinical lab companies over local medical labs and pathology groups
Enrollment in Medicare Advantage health plans is booming. This development is not auspicious for local medical laboratories, hospital lab outreach programs, and anatomic pathology groups because the private health insurers operating these plans typically prefer to contract with national lab companies while narrowing their lab networks.
The mathematics of this trend are simple. As Medicare Advantage enrollment increases, the proportion of patients covered by traditional Medicare Part B fee-for-service shrinks. The consequence is that local labs have fewer Medicare Part B patients to serve and are locked out of providing medical laboratory testing services to Medicare Advantage patients. (more…)