ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2021
The Relationship Between Medicare Advantage Star Ratings and Enrollee Experience.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Primary Care Cost Sharing in Medicare Advantage.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Quantifying Consumer Interest in Medicare Advantage: Development and Usability Study Using Google Trends Data.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Social Risk Adjustment and Bonus Eligibility in Medicare Advantage Star Ratings.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Examining Trends in Medicare Advantage Plan Disenrollment Associated With Expanded Supplemental Benefit Adoption.Health services research · 2025Article
- No Association Between Medicare Advantage Providers' Network Restrictiveness and Star Rating Between 2013 and 2017: An Observational Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Observational
- Medicare Advantage Plan Star Ratings and County Social Vulnerability.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- New Supplemental Benefits and Plan Ratings Among Medicare Advantage Enrollees.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Comparing the care experiences of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with and without Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMedicare Advantage plans, private managed care plans that enrolled 34% of Medicare beneficiaries in 2019, received $6 billion in annual bonus payments on the basis of their performance on a 5-star rating system. Little is known, however, as to the extent these ratings adequately capture enrollee experience.
objectivesTo measure the effect of exposure to higher rated Medicare Advantage contracts on enrollee experience.
designAn instrumental variables analysis using MA contract consolidation as an exogenous shock to the quality of plan enrollees are exposed to.
participantsA total of 345,897 MA enrollees enrolled in non-consolidated contracts and 21,405 enrollees who were consolidated. MAIN MEASURES: The primary exposure was enrollee star rating, instrumented using contract consolidation. The primary outcomes were enrollee self-reported experience measures. KEY
resultsThere were no significant effects on increased star ratings on 23 of 27 outcomes. A one-star increase in contract star rating leads to a 5.4 percentage point increase in reporting that pain does not interfere with daily activities (95%CI 2.4, 8.4), and a 4.4 percentage reduction in the likelihood that a physician would talk to the enrollee about physical activity (95%CI: -7.8, -1.1, all p<0.05). A one-star increase in contract star rating led to an 8.4 percentage point reduction in achieving the top score on the received needed information index (95%CI: -16.4, -0.4), and a 1.8 percentage point reduction in responding with the lowest score for the overall rating of care (95%CI: -3.5, -0.1).
conclusionsExposure to a higher rated MA contract did not appreciably increase enrollee experience. Policymakers should consider reassessing how these ratings and associated bonus payments are currently calculated.
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