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From the Commonwealth Fund:

Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans for Dual Eligibles: A Primer identifies the core issues relating to the Medicare Modernization Act’s goal of offering full Medicare and Medicaid benefits through a single plan. The brief points out that coordination between special needs plans and state Medicaid programs often fails to occur. It also offers recommendations for providing higher quality care without institutionalization. (February 2008)

From the Kaiser Family Foundation:

Policy Workshop to Examine Implications of Medicare’s Funding Warning examines the controversial policy created by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which states that Medicare trustees must issue a funding warning when they project that general revenues exceed 45 percent of total Medicare spending. This workshop was held to discuss the implementation of the warning, what it means, and how it works. (March 2008)

Do We Know If Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans Are Special? raises a question that researchers try to answer by looking at the history of special needs plans and the information that could help asses whether these plans perform differently from other Medicare Advantage plans. The report goes on to examine why companies establish the plans and the challenge of overseeing them. (January 2008)

Financing Medicare: An Issue Brief assesses Medicare’s predicted expenditures for upcoming decades and the fiscal challenges associated with the program’s growth. The brief also discusses the revisions that may be made to policies if spending trends remain the same, such as an eventual increase in the payroll tax or a cut in spending for services such as physician visits. (January 2008)

From The New England Journal of Medicine:

Effect of Cost Sharing on Screening Mammography in Medicare Health Plans examines the rates at which women with cost-sharing in their Medicare managed care plans get mammograms. The data show that even relatively small copayments were associated with significantly lower mammography rates. (January 2008) 

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