By 2022, a quarter of Medicare Advantage plans now offer healthy food, transportation, and other special supplemental benefits to chronic disease beneficiaries, implying a nearly 40% year-over-year increase in carrier acceptance of these non-traditional services, A new study finds.

A report released Wednesday by consulting firm ATI Advisory found that 1,292 Medicare Advantage plans offered special supplemental benefits this year, up 383.8 percent from 267 in 2020, and that plans were able to provide those benefits for people with chronic conditions in their first year. Tyler Cromer, partner at ATI and co-author of the report, said an in-depth understanding of how social determinants of health affect individual conditions and competition in the Medicare Advantage market is driving carrier adoption of these unique offerings.

“From 2021 to 2022, we’re seeing really significant growth in Medicare Advantage enrollment, and there’s a lot of competition in this growing pie,” Cromer said. “The plan is to see these benefits as a way to differentiate new members from existing members. They are very important.”

These benefits were introduced in 2018 after Congress passed the Chronic Illness Care Act, legislation allowing Medicare Advantage plans to provide special supplemental benefits for people with chronic conditions. These benefits must initially be primarily health-related and include programs such as home care, therapeutic massage and support for caregivers. After 2019, authorities granted the program authorization to provide non-medical supplies such as food and transportation to insured persons. Insurers fund these programs through premiums and rebates that they can credit to patients’ medical bills, allowing payers to reduce their medical loss rates.

Cromer said 2020 is the first year plans can offer those benefits to enrollees, with early adopters including Centene and Anthem. Those benefits have grown in popularity as consumers delay care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and plans are increasingly looking to add new ones to avoid returning excess profits to the federal government. CMS has proposed the required Medicare Advantage plans to report the amount they spend on these supplemental benefits.

This year, the most common non-medical Special Supplemental Benefit insurer was food, with 763 plans in 42 states and Puerto Rico adopting the product, with a 121 percent year-over-year increase in the number of carriers, the report said. The number of programs offering transport services and general life support has also more than doubled compared to 2021.

Analyst and co-author Elexa Rallos said Humana has really doubled down on living benefits for enrollees in 2022 in particular, helping pay beneficiaries’ rent, utility bills or securing a place in an assisted living community. Report.

“The program definitely sees these as a way to attract beneficiaries. But I think we should point out that it’s too early and the program is still learning how to market these benefits appropriately,” Laros said. “We did find some challenges in marketing because the benefits are limited to those with chronic conditions. While they see an opportunity, I think they are still exploring the right avenues to provide these services and clearly market their beneficiaries .”

According to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the number of beneficiary complaints related to Medicare Advantage companies’ third-party marketing organizations more than doubled year-over-year in 2021 to 39,617.The organization has Propose stricter marketing guidelines for these groups.

Insurance company planners, care managers and agents are often responsible for reminding beneficiaries of these expected benefits, Rallos said. While she didn’t do an analysis of how these services affect consumer premiums, Rallos guesses that many of the benefits apply to members who are in no-copayment plans.

Going forward, she would like to see more plans with flexible benefit structures, where they give members a fixed amount, like $1,000, and allow them to choose how the money is spent on a package of benefits rather than a single service. Growth in this area is spurring innovation among digital health startups and providers who are looking at what benefits Medicare Advantage plans can offer now and creating new companies focused on those services, she said.

“We’re definitely going to see new players and new vendors move into this space as they realize there’s an opportunity to partner with the program and deliver these benefits,” Rallos said.