Medicare uses information from member satisfaction surveys, plans, and health care providers to
give overall performance star ratings to Medicare Advantage plans. These ratings are an incentive
for Medicare plans to improve plan quality by making it easier for beneficiaries to compare and
choose plans based on quality and performance. (You can read more about
what the star ratings measure here.)
In review of the 2020 Medicare Advantage quality star ratings,
only 3.2% of all Medicare Advantage plans (14 plans) fell
below a 3.0 star rating with the majority of plans clustering between
3.5 and 4.0 stars.
In addition, 35% of all Medicare Advantage plans (235 out of 673 plans) did not receive a
rating this year.
Of the 307 rated
local HMO plans, 3.9% or 12 plans, have a rating that
falls below the 3.0 star rating benchmark and only 18 plans (5.9%)
have a 5-star (excellent) rating. These 18 plans qualify for the
5-star special enrollment period.
There are 85 rated
local PPO plans, only one of the rated plans has a rating below the
3.0 star minimum acceptable rating and two local PPO plans have a
5-star rating. The majority of the local PPO plans fall within the 3.5
to 4.5 star range.
There are only 27 rated
regional PPO plans. No rated plans have a rating
below the 3.0 star benchmark and 24 plans have a star rating between 3.5 and 4.5 stars.
Rated
PFFS plans are in the 3 to 3.5 stars rating level, with no plans below 3 stars.
All of the rated Medicare
Cost plan
are earning between 4.0 and 5.0 stars.
The chart below is a breakdown by health plan type for all 2020 Medicare Advantage plans.
In contrast to the paragraphs above that discussed percentages of
rated plans,
the percentages in the chart are of
total plans,
which includes both rated and unrated plans.
Health
Plan Type |
2020 Medicare Advantage Plan |
Total Plans*** |
Star Ratings* |
n/a |
1.5 |
2 |
2.5 |
3** |
3.5 |
4 |
4.5 |
5 |
Cost |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
11% |
33% |
33% |
Local HMO |
140 |
1 |
3 |
8 |
50 |
86 |
93 |
52 |
18 |
451 |
31% |
0% |
1% |
2% |
11% |
19% |
21% |
12% |
4% |
Local PPO |
51 |
|
|
1 |
5 |
31 |
23 |
23 |
2 |
136 |
38% |
- |
- |
1% |
4% |
23% |
17% |
17% |
1% |
Regional PPO |
1 |
|
|
|
3 |
17 |
6 |
1 |
|
28 |
4% |
- |
- |
- |
11% |
61% |
21% |
4% |
- |
PFFS |
|
|
|
|
1 |
4 |
|
|
|
5 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
20% |
80% |
- |
- |
- |
MMP |
40 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
46 |
100% |
|
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
MSA |
2 |
|
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
4 |
50% |
|
- |
25% |
- |
25% |
- |
- |
- |
Total MA & MAPD Plans |
235 |
1 |
3 |
10 |
59 |
140 |
123 |
79 |
23 |
673 |
35% |
0% |
0% |
1% |
9% |
21% |
18% |
12% |
3% |
Chart Notes:
n/a means that these plans have not received a quality star rating.
Either the plan is too new, or there is insufficient data to calculate a star rating.
*Medicare Advantage plans both with and without prescription drug coverage are included in the numbers
above (but if the same contract has both with and without prescription drug coverage, the plan is only
counted once).
**A star rating of 3 means average performance.
Star rating definitions.
***Medicare uses the term plan(s) to mean the contract identifier associated with the plan.
In the chart above the total plans is the total number of unique contract id (ex: H1234 or R1234).
The total number of plans includes plans that either did not have enough data to calculate a summary
score or were too new to be measured.
Learn more about the
2020 Medicare Star Ratings here.
You can see the summary and detailed star rating for any Medicare plan using our
PDP-Finder or
MA-Finder tools. Click on the plan name for the summary ratings and links to detailed ratings. As an example, here is a link to the
Florida WellCare Medicare Rx Select (PDP) (formerly the Aetna Medicare Rx Select), scroll down the details chart to see the summary ratings and click on the rating to see the
details of the ratings and how the ratings compare to the previous year.