An Illustrative Analysis of Medicare Options Compare: What's There and What's Not?

Medicare Options Compare, a website maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), helps beneficiaries choose among available Medicare Advantage plans. This AARP brief identifies strengths and weaknesses of the site. On one hand, it helps beneficiaries identify health plan choices available in their zip code and provides an extensive amount of information on these choices. On the other hand, beneficiaries might have trouble interpreting some of the information. Though the site limitations partly reflect the complexity of the program, CMS could enhance the website’s usefulness by restructuring some of the information to better support beneficiary choice.