On a special emergency pod episode of Health Affairs This Week coming to you on the A Health Podyssey feed, Health Affairs Publishing’s Jeff Byers welcomes Brown University&#x27;s David Meyers to the pod to unpack the 2027 Medicare Advantage final payment rule, including the higher-than-anticipated rate increase, changes to risk adjustment models, what is V28, and the tradeoffs between market stability and long-term program sustainability.<br>To view an Insider Cheat Sheet on the MA rule, purchase Insider.<br>On April 20th, join us for our upcoming Insider exclusive event exploring the evolution of the Medicare Advantage market featuring Sachin Jain, David Meyers, and Grace Mackleby.<br>Related Links:<br>Assessing Recent Regulatory Action On Medicare Advantage (Health Affairs Forefront)

2027 Medicare Advantage Final Payment Rule: Key Changes Explained | David Meyers

A Health Podyssey

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** A Health Podyssey

## Participants

- **Jeff Byers** (Health Affairs Publishing)
- **David Meyers** (Brown University)
- **Grace McElby** (Grace McElby)
- **Sachin Jain** (Health Affairs Insider)

## Transcript

Hello and welcome to A Health Podyssey. I'm your host, Jeff Byers. We are recording on April 7th, 2026. That's right. It's time for an emergency pod to discuss the Medicare Advantage payment final rule for plan year 2027. Today on the pod to discuss that we have David Meyers from Brown University. David is also a panelist for our upcoming Insider event on April 20th. That event is titled The Evolution of Medicare Advantage and the Market Implications.

Other speakers include Grace McElby and Sachin Jain. David, welcome to the program. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Always happy to nerd out about techie Medicare Advantage rate announcements. Well, I'm glad you're here so that I can actually learn about techie rate announcements. So we'll go into Medicare Advantage in the Market more for our April 20th event. But today, let's discuss the new ruling. So essentially, like the assurance lobby got its wish, right? With a payment bump. Is that right?

Yeah. So what comes out in this rate announcement ultimately is something that looks really beneficial for the insurance companies compared to what was originally signaled in the advance notice that came out a couple months ago. And so this is definitely something that the insurers were hoping for. And I think that that's been demonstrated in how we're seeing some of their stocks trend on the market when the markets opened up this morning.

Yeah. So CMS announced on Monday, I can't remember if it was after close of business or not, but it was cutting it pretty close. A 2.48% payment increase for Medicare Advantage plans in 2027. This was above the proposed .009 payment bump. So this will increase an estimated $13 billion in Medicare Advantage payments rates, according to the CMS press releases.

David, just general thoughts or hypotheses or reactions from this? This rate announcement is one of the most important events in the regulatory calendar for Medicare Advantage plans. It's where the payment rates are going to be set for the following year. And there are two big components that go into it. There's this effective growth rate, which is determined by the actuaries based on trends in traditional Medicare spending.

As traditional Medicare spending goes up, that leads to more payments or plans. But then the rate announcement is also where the administration can make changes to things like the risk adjustment system and the HCC scores. And when the original advance notice came out, CMS had proposed having basically a flat increase in payment for plans. There was some growth in the effective growth rate as sort of payment is going up nationally in traditional Medicare.

But CMS was basically balancing that out by making a couple changes to the risk adjustment ...

2027 Medicare Advantage Final Payment Rule: Key Changes Explained | David Meyers

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

2027 Medicare Advantage Final Payment Rule: Key Changes Explained | David Meyers

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.