Simplifying The Medicare Plan Finder Tool Could Help Older Adults Choose Lower-Cost Part D Plans

Helping older adults make good plan choices is a persistent challenge of the Medicare prescription drug (Part D) program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides an internet-based decision support tool (Plan Finder), but this appears to have had limited effect in part because the tool is complex and difficult to interpret. This study used a randomized experiment with hypothetical Part D plan choices to test the effect of simplifying the default amount of financial information provided on Plan Finder on people's ability to select low-cost plans. Reducing the amount of financial information displayed results in the selection of lower-cost plans, with no accompanying decrease in average plan quality or pharmacy network size but an increase in the take-up of convenience options such as a mail-order pharmacy. These modifications to the current Plan Finder design have the potential to improve the tool's usability and beneficiaries' plan choices in the Part D market.