It’s a journalist’s dream to interview articulate, sincere, no-holds-barred CEOs. When they actually create headlines, it’s like manna from heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s precisely what happened last week at the annual Medicarians conference in Las Vegas, where I was invited to interview Ed Park, CEO of Devoted Health<\/a>, a for-profit, venture backed Medicare Advantage company serving 500,000 people in 29 states. Medicarians is aimed toward brokers, insurance agents and larger organizations that sell healthcare and financial products to seniors. A big chunk of the conference agenda is dedicated to discussions of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage. For instance, before I got to interview Park, other prominent MA plan CEOs such as Alignment Health Plan CEO Dawn Maroney<\/a>, SCAN Health Plan CEO Sachin Jain<\/a>, Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini<\/a> and leaders from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services<\/a> also addressed the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Park, like most MA plan CEOs I have interviewed, believes fundamentally in the promise of the program, which was built around providing more choice to seniors and offering greater preventive services. That dual focus would eliminate more expensive care downstream as people got older and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2003 was the year when Medicare Advantage was officially born, and today, more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in MA plans. Twenty-three years have passed, but MA has not delivered the cost savings it was touted to be capable of when envisioned. In fact, according to the annual report that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) provides to Congress, MA costs are sky-high, and the health outcomes are mixed. MedPAC is a non-partisan, independent congressional agency that analyzes and provides advice to the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program. This includes CMS payment, healthcare access, and quality of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n