Medicare Advantage health plans are blasting a government proposal this week that would keep their reimbursement rates flat next year while making other payment changes. In Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays private insurance companies to manage health care for people who are 65 and older or disabled. These reviews can result in new medical diagnoses, sometimes including conditions patients haven’t even asked their doctors to treat, that increase government payments to Medicare Advantage plans. Kronick has argued that switching seniors to Medicare Advantage plans has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars more than keeping them in the government-run Medicare program, because of unbridled medical coding excesses. “They mostly are very profitable, just not as profitable as shareholders expected.”The government pays Medicare Advantage plans higher rates to cover sicker patients.