Patients have been hospitalized from Covid-19 in many metropolitan areas in 2020, and they had a longer length of stay compared to other conditions. However, healthcare costs are expected to go from $75 billion to $575 billion less than a normal year, because of the deferred care from the pandemic.
Because of this dramatic decrease in costs, Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations might have to deal with a significant forecasting challenge in submitting their bids to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the upcoming year plan. Given all this uncertainty, CMS released the final rule for its MA and Part D payment methodologies for the 2022 contract year.
