Reuters (5/22, Rappaport) reported that “most Medicare Advantage plans are not offering chronically ill enrollees supplemental benefits to address social needs that were added to the government health program in 2018 in an effort to improve health outcomes and achieve cost savings, a” study published in JAMA Network Open suggests.
Investigators “examined publicly available data on benefits and plan design for Medicare Advantage plans to see which ones offered new benefits under the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2018” and found that “in 2020, 139 of 3,052 plans (4.6%) offered benefits for social needs.” Moreover, “plans with higher ratings, as well as health maintenance.