Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2018 
Onyinye Oyeka, MPH; Fred Ullrich, BA; and Keith Mueller, PhD
The RUPRI Center’s annual analysis of Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment shows that there are 2.6 million nonmetropolitan beneficiaries (24.6 percent of eligible nonmetropolitan beneficiaries) enrolled in an MA plan. The number of nonmetropolitan beneficiaries enrolled in an MA plan increased by 9.5 percent from 2017 to 2018. Nonmetropolitan MA enrollment remains significantly lower than metropolitan enrollment (24.6 percent v. 36.4 percent), but in 2017 the nonmetropolitan rate of growth in MA plan enrollment was higher than the rate of growth in metropolitan areas (4.7 v. 2.0 percent).
Among MA plans, nonmetropolitan enrollment in private fee-for-service MA plans declined sharply between 2009 and 2018, while nonmetropolitan enrollment in health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and local preferred provider organizations (PPOs) saw significant increases.
Click to download a copy: Medicare Advantage Enrollment Update 2018