by Paige Minemyer | Aug 1, 2019 6:58 am
Business is booming in
Medicare Advantage (MA), and many insurers operating in that market say they
have plans to grow, according to a new survey.
Software
company HealthEdge backed a survey of
201 insurance executives who work with Medicare and MA plans
and found that 92% were either growing or intended to grow their MA
business more quickly than their traditional Medicare business lines.
A clear draw is the
steady growth in MA enrollment as more baby boomers age into
Medicare. In 2019, 22 million people chose an MA plan over fee-for-service
Medicare, about 34% of the total Medicare population, according to the
survey.
“It's going to become
a super competitive market, where you don’t have to hit that big
of a critical mass number,” Steve Krupa, CEO of HealthEdge,
told FierceHealthcare. “If you have 10,000
to 20,000 members, you have a substantial revenue base.”
In addition to the
swelling Medicare population offering a clear business case for favoring the MA
market, the survey found MA insurers also highly value the opportunities for
value-based care such plans provide.
The vast majority
(96%) said MA’s value-based options either significantly or moderately played a
role in their decision to grow their business.
In addition, 23% said
they intended to optimize such programs, and 18% said they plan to design or
refine high-performance networks or accountable care organizations, according
to the survey.
“That’s perceived as a
winner and a critical enabler for success,” Harry Merkin, vice president of
marketing at HealthEdge, told FierceHealthcare.
The biggest challenge
MA plan sponsors face in these endeavors, though, is getting the necessary
technology in place, the survey found. This is especially true as the people
aging into Medicare are increasingly tech-savvy.
The survey asked the
participants to rank factors that would help them gear up for these new
beneficiaries, and 40% named modernizing their technology tools as either the
first or second choice.
Some new plans “may
even be looking at tech before they enroll their first member,” Krupa
said.
“People turning 65
today have been around for the smartphone
revolution, the web revolution,” he said. "Really what
we’re seeing is that you’re going to have a much more sophisticated
technical user as people age in.”
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