Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations benefitted from temporary enforcement discretion related to certain MA policies during the COVID Public Health Emergency (PHE). Some plans used this accommodation to make mid-year benefice enhancements to their plans. For example, some plans added an opportunity for some of their enrollees to receive in-home food delivery benefit.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notified that this enforcement discretion would end with the PHE on May 11 and this will prohibit plans from providing any expanded or additional benefits, including cost-sharing reductions if they are not already in the plans benefit package that was approved for Contract Year 2023 that started January 1, 2023.