In 2014, more than 16 million Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled into a Medicare Advantage plan, such as HMOs or PPOs, which receives funds from the government to provide Medicare covered benefits to enrolled.
Under the current Medicare program, Medicare Advantage plans will offer an alternative to the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, and Medicare recipients may enroll in Medicare Advantage plans, switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare, or change Medicare Advantage plans during each Medicare open enrollment period.
Payments from the federal government into Medicare Advantage plans were gradually reduced by Obamacare also known as Affordable Care Act of 2010 with goal of creating greater parity payments between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare program by the year 2017.