Medicare Advantage (MA) plans must cover all traditional benefits at a level of cost-sharing that is no greater in aggregate than that of traditional Medicare, which uses a fee-for-service (FFS) model. Yet MA plans are allowed to offer benefits not covered under traditional Medicare, and almost all do so. This paper focuses on the supplemental non-Medicare FFS-covered benefits exclusive of Part D coverage. Our discussion is organized as follows:

• Background on supplemental benefits
• Definition of “primarily health related”
• Uniformity flexibility to reduce cost-sharing
• Special supplemental benefits for the chronically ill

This report was commissioned by Better Medicare Alliance, Inc.