Modern Healthcare (online registration required): Medicare Advantage plans are reducing avoidable hospital readmissions at a faster clip than traditional Medicare, the insurance industry claims, emphasizing the value of Advantage plans at a time when major cuts are slated for the plans under the new reform law.

Advantage plans, long maligned for getting paid more than traditional fee-for-service Medicare, is facing $135 billion in direct federal spending reductions over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. While the projected cuts "are of major concern" to the insurance industry, the focus of the briefing was to show what tools the industry has been using to reduce readmissions, something that everyones talking about, said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of Americas Health Insurance Plans, which hosted the briefing.

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