Elevance Report Touts Supplemental Benefits’ Impact on Utilization

The use of supplemental benefits in Medicare Advantage can markedly improve health care utilization, decreasing members’ inpatient admissions and increasing wellness visits and preventive screenings, suggests new research from Elevance Health, Inc.’s Public Policy Institute. And the effect is especially pronounced for Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles, who are more likely to have greater care needs and face socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Following legislation and regulatory changes in 2018 and 2019 that established new types of supplemental benefits and expanded the definition of what CMS considers “primarily health-related,” payers began to offer supplemental benefits that target these health-related social needs, such as food insecurity and lack of access to transportation.