Humana Seeks to Improve Medicare Advantage Specialty Needs Benefits

Humana has announced a partnership with Longevity Health Plan to improve Medicare Advantage members’ specialty needs plan benefits.

Humana’s partner is both a clinical services company and a national Institutional Special Needs (ISNP) plan.

In particular, the partners will focus their efforts on improving care for members in skilled nursing facilities and senior living homes.

“An estimated 70% of Medicare beneficiaries will require institutional long-term care at some point in their lifetime. By partnering with Longevity, we will be able to provide integrated care for our members right at the facility where they are living,” said George Renaudin, Humana’s president of Medicare and Medicaid.

“These individuals have unique care needs, and this expands our ability to offer them the best care possible in a way that is better for the member’s health and in an environment that is more engaging and comfortable for their loved ones.”

The partners aim to serve seniors with multiple complex conditions. They will pursue value-based contracts with skilled nursing facility operators, aiming to incentivize excellent quality of care and comprehensive care.

Humana will offer benefits from this partnership to members through hits Humana Together in Health and Humana Senior Living Plan products. The benefits could include zero-dollar copays primary care services and behavioral healthcare and free preventive care services. Hearing aid coverage and transportation offerings, onsite advanced practice clinician focused on comprehensive care management, and coordinated care, among other benefits.

“We are thrilled to partner with Humana to offer our innovative, value-based model, which means high-quality care and more personalized attention for its members and greater peace of mind for members’ families,” said Dr. René Lerer, chief executive officer of Longevity Health.

“With the support of the entire clinical team, our local facility-based clinicians provide direct care to members onsite, where they are most comfortable. Our collaborative model strengthens communication between loved ones and the care team, improves access to primary care, and improves timeliness of services.”

The partnership will initially serve South Carolina and Georgia in 2023. The following year, the partners plan to expand into five more states. In 2025, they will continue to scale up, making care available to seniors in more regions. Ultimately, the partners indicated that they aim to serve more than 12 states in the next three years.

Humana’s announcement follows a couple of social determinants of health investments that the company made in April 2023. The payer announced that it would invest $40 million in housing stability in multiple states, from Florida to Michigan and South Carolina to Washington state. The investments were part of a partnership with Raymond James Affordable Housing Investments.

Humana also invested in solutions to food insecurity in the same month. The payer funded a university program that relies on student volunteers to deliver meals to seniors that have been waitlisted for the Meals on Wheels program. This funding will expand the program’s reach from the University of Northern Florida, bringing the solution to the University of Kentucky’s Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition (UK) and Lehman College in New York City’s Department of Dietetics, Foods, and Nutrition.