Payer Extends Medicare Advantage Footprint to Reach 5M Seniors

SCAN Health Plan is expanding its Medicare Advantage footprint to Arizona, Nevada, and additional counties in California to reach more than five million senior beneficiaries.

SCAN currently provides senior-focused Medicare Advantage plans to 220,000 Californians and aims to reach even more seniors by extending its offerings to Alameda and San Mateo counties.

The payer had not offered plans in states other than California until now. Starting in 2022, the nonprofit Medicare Advantage plan will offer health plans in Nevada’s Clark County and SCAN Desert Health Plan will provide health plans for residents in Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties in Arizona.

SCAN’s Medicare Advantage presence will span across 17 markets in three different states next year.

“For more than four decades, SCAN has set the standard for senior care, and we’re proud to bring our unique benefits that support healthy aging to new communities throughout the Southwest,” Sachin Jain, MD, president and chief executive officer of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan, stated in the press release.

SCAN’s health plans prioritize keeping seniors healthy while helping them maintain autonomy, according to the payer.

To make the most of the expansion, the payer will organize outreach initiatives for the more than five million potential consumers in its new markets. The payer will also have the capacity to communicate with members in five different languages including English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean.

“We see diversity as a competitive advantage,” Jill Selby, senior vice president of product development and market expansion at SCAN, said in the press release. “In addition to providing members with our best-in-class customer service, SCAN is committed to serving new populations in ways that are both linguistically and culturally competent.”

SCAN’s decision to expand its Medicare Advantage footprint aligns with the payer’s recent initiatives to increase access to care, the press release noted.

SCAN introduced Welcome Health, a geriatric primary care medical group that will provide virtual and at-home healthcare services to seniors. The payer also launched Healthcare in Action, a medical group that will focus on providing healthcare services to people experiencing homelessness.

In addition to the new initiatives, SCAN offers services and support to seniors and their caregivers regardless of their health plan through its community service, Independence at Home.

SCAN Health Plan took steps to address their senior beneficiaries’ mental and behavioral health during the pandemic, a crucial factor when it comes to maintaining healthy independence.

Early in the pandemic, in April 2020, the health plan prioritized senior members experiencing social isolation by donating $330,000 to nonprofit organizations that serve seniors and shifting its Friendly Visitor volunteer program to a phone call in order to ensure continuation among social distancing and quarantine rules.

SCAN Health Plan also recently developed a Togetherness program to combat loneliness and improve seniors’ mental healthcare. The program will offer members virtual and in-person classes designed around shared interests to reduce the impacts of social isolation.

Seniors will also have access to a tech buddy program that can help them use tablets or other devices to connect with others virtually.

SCAN Health Plan joins the list of Medicare Advantage plans that continue to expand their footprint across the nation. In the past couple of years, Bright Health has nearly doubled its reach and starting in 2022 Alignment Healthcare is introducing plans in Arizona for the first time, as well as additional North Carolina and Nevada Counties.

Medicare Advantage plans tend to share similar characteristics including diverse member populations, high-quality care delivery, low senior spending totals, and high enrollment growth, according to a fact sheet from the Alliance of Community Health Plans.