2015: Rural Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update.

Key Findings. (1) Rural enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) and other prepaid plans increased by 6.8 percent between March 2014 and March 2015 to 2.1 million members, or 21.2 percent of all rural residents eligible for Medicare. This compares to a national enrollment in MA and other prepaid plans of 31.1 percent (16.7 million) of enrollees. (2) Rural enrollment in Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans (including point-of-service, or POS, plans), Preferred Provider Organization (PP0) plans, and other pre-paid plans (including Medicare Cost and Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly Plans) all increased by 5-13 percent. (3) Enrollment in private fee-for-service (PFFS) plans continued to decline (decreasing nationally by 15.8 percent and 12.1 percent in rural counties over the period March 2014-2015). Only eight states showed an increase in PFFS plan enrollment. Five states experienced decreases of 50 percent or more. (4) The five states with the highest percentages of rural beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan are Minnesota (51.8 percent), Hawaii (39.4 percent), Pennsylvania (36.2 percent), Wisconsin (35.5 percent), and New York (31.5 percent).