by Paige Minemyer | Oct 1, 2019 4:02pm
Cigna is launching its largest Medicare Advantage (MA) expansion
to date for 2020, including new geographic regions, products and benefits
targeting the social determinants of health.
With MA open enrollment set to begin Oct. 15, Cigna announced it
will launch its first MA PPO plans in 43 counties across eight states. It will
also offer its existing HMO plans in 37 additional counties in nine
states.
The insurer said it will make both plans available in the Denver
area, its first foray into the state with MA.
In total, Cigna’s 2020 MA geographic footprint will include 80
counties across 17 states. Brian Evanko, president of Cigna’s government
business, told FierceHealthcare growth in MA is a key element of the
insurers’ long-term plans for growth.
“It’s a big step in that direction,” Evanko said.
Evanko said that Cigna’s broad geographic reach in other
business sectors offers plenty of room for its MA footprint to grow. There are
plan offerings in each market with a $0 premium, and 89% of 2020 plans offer a
$0 copay on primary care visits, Cigna said.
Alongside the expanded plan offerings, Cigna announced that
it will be testing new supplemental benefits targeting the social determinants
of health for 2020. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a rule earlier this
year that allows MA plans to offer coverage for benefits
targeting chronic care management, such as air quality tools for members with
asthma.
Evanko said Cigna has in the past offered coverage for
transportation and meals across business lines, finding success with, for
example, a program that offered 14 days of meals after hospital
discharge.
For 2020, Cigna will pilot an air conditioner allowance in some
of its Texas plans, a fall prevention program for some Mississippi and Kansas
beneficiaries, adult day care in New Jersey and will offer a patient attendant
for medical visits in some Pennsylvania and Maryland plans.
In addition, Cigna intends to offer an acupuncture allowance in
all its HMO plans and its PPO plans in Colorado and will test an expanded
transportation benefit with some beneficiaries in Pennsylvania and Arizona that
would include rides to the grocery store, church services and other nonmedical
trips in addition to doctor visits and other rides for healthcare needs.
Evanko said the insurer selects supplemental benefit options
based on member feedback and uses tests in certain markets as a barometer for
benefits that may be beneficial to a broader group of members.
Some pilots build on existing offerings—such as the new
transportation benefit, which also plays into ongoing work at Cigna to combat
patient loneliness.
“We do this on a market by market basis to get the
learning before we extrapolate it,” he said.
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