Health Plan Alliance Announces Return of Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefit Consortium

The Health Plan Alliance (Alliance), in collaboration with Faegre Drinker Consulting and the Wakely Consulting Group, is pleased to announce the launch of its Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Consortium for Plan Year 2023. As before, the Consortium will provide a forum for health plans to evaluate potential supplemental benefits for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and provide resources to assist plans with implementing them. This year, the consortium's third under the Alliance, the consortium model will be tweaked to include greater member-to-member collaboration and interaction with vendors that offer the selected benefits.

The Health Plan Alliance supports nearly 50 regional health plans in non-competing markets that work with one another and their provider networks to improve managed care in their communities. "The Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Consortium offers the kind of collaborative, innovative learning that is the hallmark of the Alliance," said Kristin Rodriguez, Health Plan Alliance chief operating officer. "Each year, we review our Consortium work with an eye toward ongoing improvement and seek opportunities to develop new models of learning. Last year's evaluations tell us that we provided great value to participating plans. This year, we expect to go to the next level."

The MA program is rapidly growing—enrollment now tops 26 million—powered to a great extent by new supplemental benefits that improve plan attractiveness, member experience and clinical outcomes. With Baby Boomers aging into Medicare and the COVID-19 public health emergency changing health care expectations, this is an especially important moment for Medicare Advantage plans to assess and update their benefits strategy.

"The Consortium's value proposition is very simple. Members gain access to more new ideas and expertise collectively than any one plan would ever purchase individually," said Mike Adelberg, principal at Faegre Drinker Consulting and a former senior MA regulator for the federal government. "We took on a number of unconventional benefits last year and look forward to pushing the envelope further this year."

Tim Murray, an experienced Medicare actuary and director at Wakely Consulting Group, agrees. "Adoption of the newly permissible benefits has so far been limited but has been growing exponentially each year since 2019. I look forward to working with Consortium participants as the industry advances from the experimentation phase to the efficacy measurement and optimization stage."

This year's consortium is comprised of 30 provider-sponsored and regional health plans from the Alliance membership. It includes several of the highest quality plans in the Medicare Advantage program. Consortium activities kick off this month and will continue through the end of 2021.

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