AARP makes a royalty amount off of ALL products and services that they have authorized to use their branded name. They use that money to further their advocacies. If you believe in all that AARP does in their mission they have to have money - you think all that can be done with just membership dues or safe driving courses. Plus their executives do make a pretty good salary as most execs do.
AARP Services, Inc. is the arm that actually develops these money making endeavors and approves the products and services that get to use the branded name of AARP.
Medicare Advantage plans are part of Medicare - they cover everything that the traditional program covers - just in a different way - like I described above in my post.
Medicare Advantage plans are paid on a per capita method for each beneficiary that signs up for a particular plan. CMS bases this payment on a benchmark of health care cost in the geographical area (all health care cost are locally based) - just like they come up with their own traditional program payments to providers.
CMS (the government dept of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) controls the rules governing various Medicare Advantage plans, also they control the rules governing the coordination of care programs of ACO REACH, DCE and Cancer Care.
The difference in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans is the program designs - like I explained above. Unless a beneficiary has dual eligibility in Medicare and Medicaid, there are out of pocket cost to pay somehow - some beneficiaries prefer to have an out of pocket limit to protect them financially in the event of a health problem, others opt to buy a private insurer MEDIGAP plan to cover their cost that the traditional program does not cover.
We each have to make the decision of how to receive our Medicare benefits - smart decisions based on our health and our pocketbook.
It's Always Something . . . . Roseanna Roseannadanna
