In Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays private insurance companies to manage health care for people who are 65 and older or disabled. "These proposed payment policies are about making sure Medicare Advantage works better for the people it serves," Oz said. 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. The government pays Medicare Advantage plans higher rates to cover sicker patients. Many Medicare Advantage health plans have hired medical coding and analytics consultants to review patients' medical charts to find new diagnoses that they then bill to the government.