Medicare Advantage is not an advantage for many seniors with cancer

When America’s seniors enroll in Medicare, they enter the most medically vulnerable stretch of their lives. But as recently diagnosed cancer patients embark on this unwanted, unexpected care journey, what many seniors do not realize is that their Medicare Advantage (MA) plan can often put them at a disadvantage by restricting access to the care they need and deserve.  MA beneficiaries are only able to use physicians and hospitals within their plan’s — and in some instances, their sub-contracted medical group’s — network and service area.  And for those developing these networks, the focus is on cost containment, and not the attributes most valued by cancer patients: survival, quality of life and additional years with friends and loved ones.  MA beneficiaries who had oncologic surgery on the pancreas were two times as likely to die within the first month.