Insurers Wary of Dental, Hearing, Eye Benefits for Medicare

The Biden administration’s proposal to add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to traditional Medicare could end up shortchanging program beneficiaries enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans, a new report finds.

Unless Congress adjusts the Medicare Advantage “benchmark” base rate, those plans would receive 48% to 73% fewer rebate dollars, said an analysis funded by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a leading industry trade group. Rebate dollars help fund supplemental benefits like transportation to appointments, meals, in-home services, and over-the-counter medicines,

That comes to nearly $700 to $1,056 a year in benefits that the Medicare Advantage plan enrollees would lose each year, ...