There is a common perception that Medicare Risk Adjustment (MRA) is all about the money. Is it? It always does come down to the money, but the managed-care MRA model is vastly different from the Fee for Service (FFS) model; the reasons that it is about the money are also different. The MRA model creates an interesting and significantly satisfying outcome for those who understand the system's whys and wherefores.This high-level look at MRA is written from "The School of Hard Knocks"; distilling over twenty years of experience in the managed-care arena, from the ground-realities of caring for Medicare patients while juggling all the compliance issues surrounding the funding for that care.