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If you feel like Medicare Advantage plans are raking in the profits at your — and their members’ — expense, you may like a new proposed rule that would drastically lower their pay rate increases.

On Feb. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the calendar year 2023 Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Medicare Advantage (MA) Capitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies. The notice reviews CMS’ payment rate methodology and alignment with Inflation Reduction Act provisions.

CMS estimates a 2.09 percent increase to MA plans’ revenue for 2024, according to the fact sheet on the notice. Last year’s final rate announcement for the effective growth rate ended up at 4.88 percent.

“Accounting for the impact of the benchmark rate cap, MA rebate and other policies, the net impact on the Medicare Trust Funds for CY 2024 is expected to be $7.3 billion,” clarify attorneys Ankur J. Goel and Emily R. Curran with law firm McDermott Will & Emery in online legal analysis. “CMS estimates the expected average change in revenue for MA organizations (MAOs) to increase by 1.03 percent in CY 2024, down from an 8.50 percent increase in CY 2023,” Goel and Curran add.

The notice looks at CMS’ proposed technical revisions under the Part C risk adjustment model, including those related to updated diagnosis coding, the fact sheet says.

CMS also proposes updating future measures and adding a “Universal Foundation” of core measures in the MA Star Ratings program. “CMS is also soliciting initial feedback on potential substantive measure specification updates, new measure concepts, and the addition of measures to align with other CMS programs,” the fact sheet explains.

Interested parties can offer CMS their opinions by March 3. A final MA and Part D rate announcement for CY 2024 is planned by April 3. Reference docket number “CMS- 2023-0010” in the “search” field at www.regulations.gov and follow the directions.

Note: The 139-page advance notice is at www.cms.gov/files/document/2024-advance-notice.pdf.