Senate Committee Approves Medicare Bill 26-0

The Medicare Advantage program gives insurers a chance to sell plans that serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare coverage. In an effort to help consumers shop for the plans on an apples-to-apples basis, the program sets strict rules governing what kinds of basic benefits issuers must provide, and what kinds of supplemental benefits the issuers can provide.

Starting in 2020, Section 302 of the Medicare bill would give Advantage plan issuers a chance to add new types of benefits aimed at people with chronic health problems.

The new benefits would be "supplemental benefits that, with respect to a chronically ill enrollee, have a reasonable expectation of improving or maintaining the health or overall function of the chronically ill enrollee and may not be limited to being primarily health-related benefits," according to the bill text.

— Read 5 Senate Finance Chronic-Care Proposal Basics on ThinkAdvisor.