minus jon kaplan and i'm senior partner of the boston consulting group.i have a healthier background of over 25 years working closely with both nonprofit and for-profit health care entities throughout the entire health care industry. earlier this year i led a team that analyzed differences in health outcomes between patients enrolled in traditional medicare and those enrolled in private medicare advantage health plans. we found that patients enrolled in the medicare advantage plans have better health outcomes than those participating in traditional medicare. there are three key findings from our research. first, the m.a. patient under sample receipt higher levels of recommended preventive care, and have fewer disease specific complications. second, during acute episode required hospitalization, the patients in the m.a. plans spent almost 20% less time in the hospital than those in traditional medicare. in addition they have less reignition into the hospital. finally, the percentage of people who died in the year we studied was substantially higher in the

jon kaplan, senior partner and managing director of the boston consulting group. your written testimony will be made a part of the record. you have five minutes to summarize your testimony. at this time the chair recognizes mr. holtz-eakin for five minutes for an opening statement. >> thank you chairman, ranking member pallone. let me take this opportunity emphasize a few points that are made in a written statement. first i said and pointed out by the chairman and others in opening statements is that medicare advantage is a valuable and popular part of medicare. nearly 30% of beneficiaries voluntarily enrolled in the increasing enrollment each year and it does provide extra services and innovative approaches to health care in the medicare program. it disproportionally serves lower income beneficiaries and minorities and has been -- the program of choice for them. but most importantly medicare advantage is not a fee-for-service medicine and does it represent an important opportunity to move away from the practice of medicine has proven costly and that rewards volum

my name is jon kaplan. backgroundalth care of over 25 years working closely with nonprofit and for-profit health care entities throughout the health care industry. year, i led a team that analyzes the differences in health care outcomes between those enrolled in traditional medicare and those enrolled in private medicare advantage health plans. we found that patients enrolled in the medicare advantage plans had better health outcomes than those participating in traditional medicare. there are three key findings from our research. receive higher levels of recommended or vented care. they had fewer disease specific complications. episodes requiring hospitalizations, patient spent more than 20% less time than those in traditional medicare. they have less readmissions into the hospital. the percentage of people who died in the year we studied was substantially higher in the traditional medicare sample than those in the medicare advantage sample. this is a striking finding. one that we hope to explore further in