Medicare considering automatic Medicare Advantage enrollment

Tara Bannow covers hospitals, providers, and insurers. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

On Thursday, the Medicare director under President Trump announced that his team is contemplating a policy to automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans. This proposal, which is viewed as contentious, was highlighted in the conservative Project 2025 policy outline.

Chris Klomp, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, mentioned that they are exploring the viability of models that would automatically enroll beneficiaries either into the private Medicare option or into accountable care organizations, such as those in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Beneficiaries would still have the option to choose a different insurance plan. Currently, those who do not make an active choice are enrolled in traditional Medicare.

Klomp stated, “Would either of those, in my view, be superior to a default enrollment into a fee-for-service arrangement, where there’s not this long-term, secular relationship between the beneficiary, the patient, and their provider? Yes.”