Special Needs Plans (SNPs) are Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that provide benefits and services to people with specific conditions, health care needs, or who also have Medicaid. Established by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the SNP program was initially set to expire in 2008, but the program has seen multiple extensions and been subject to a number of changes since that time.
This brief examines recent trends in MA SNP enrollment by type and geographic variation across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.Â