{"id":25117,"date":"2025-11-06T10:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25117"},"modified":"2025-11-06T10:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:44:13","slug":"are-medicare-advantage-extras-worth-86-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=25117","title":{"rendered":"Are Medicare Advantage extras worth $86 billion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Medicare Advantage plans, as part of their appeal to Medicare recipients, offer \u201cextra\u201d or ancillary benefits, including dental, vision, and hearing, which are not covered by original Medicare. Some plans, not all, have the SilverSneakers program, which is reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS). \u00a0These \u201cgoodies\u201d are what draw people to Medicare Advantage plans, but are those individuals using them? Or are they simply a waste of taxpayers\u2019 money? Beth Pinsker, writing for MarketWatch, looks at whether taxpayers are wasting $86 billion in these Medicare Advantage plans \u201cextra\u201d benefits. Read Ms. Pinsker\u2019s article<a title=\" here\u2026\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/are-taxpayers-wasting-86-billion-on-silversneakers-and-medicare-advantage-goodies-they-dont-use-a4bc5d3d\"> here\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" class=\"wp-image-15045\" style=\"width: 150px;\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/dreamstime_m_96363436seniors-exercise-exercising-staying-in-shape.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/dreamstime_m_96363436seniors-exercise-exercising-staying-in-shape.png 941w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/dreamstime_m_96363436seniors-exercise-exercising-staying-in-shape-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/dreamstime_m_96363436seniors-exercise-exercising-staying-in-shape-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Notice:<\/strong>\u00a0The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medicare Advantage plans, as part of their appeal to Medicare recipients, offer \u201cextra\u201d or ancillary benefits, including dental, vision, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,21,9],"tags":[80,238,62,946,94],"class_list":["post-25117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cms","category-health-care-finance","category-medicare-advantage","tag-cms","tag-healthcare-finance","tag-medicare-advantage","tag-medicare-advantage-extra-benefits","tag-older-adults"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25118,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117\/revisions\/25118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}