Medicare Director Chris Klomp speaks at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit East event in New York on Thursday.Greg Riccardi for STAT

Tara Bannow covers hospitals, providers, and insurers. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

President Trump’s Medicare director said Thursday his team is considering a policy that would automatically enroll Medicare beneficiaries into Medicare Advantage plans, a controversial idea that was touted in the conservative Project 2025 policy blueprint. 

Chris Klomp said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is mulling the feasibility of models that would either automatically enroll beneficiaries into the private form of Medicare or accountable care organizations, such as those that participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. Individuals could still opt into a different insurance arrangement. Right now, people who don’t make a choice are covered by traditional Medicare.

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“Would either of those, in my view, be superior to a default enrollment into a fee-for-service arrangement, where there’s not this long-term, secular relationship between the beneficiary, the patient, and their provider? Yes,” Klomp said. 

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