News and insights to help health plans and providers stay connected to one of the most important destinations of care: the home.

SCAN Group Makes Investment in Dina

SCAN Group Makes Investment in Dina

SCAN Group, a mission-driven organization whose holdings include SCAN Health Plan, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, has made its latest strategic investment in Dina. Earlier this year, Dina and SCAN launched a program in California...

Delivering Care at Home Requires New Services, Tools & Partners

Delivering Care at Home Requires New Services, Tools & Partners

As more health plans prioritize the home as a primary site of care, they’ll also need to invest in the tools, services, and partners to build out that capability beyond traditional home care.  Personal care, meal delivery, home modification, and transportation are...

Unmet HCBS Needs Persist Despite Increased Waiver Funding

Unmet HCBS Needs Persist Despite Increased Waiver Funding

Seniors, people with disabilities, and those with chronic conditions rely on Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) to live independently outside of nursing homes and other institutions. Medicaid fills an important gap as the sole source of coverage for...

Demand for LTSS Grows, But Industry Issues Persist

Demand for LTSS Grows, But Industry Issues Persist

Millions of people – children, adults, and seniors – need to access long-term services and supports (LTSS) as a result of disabling conditions and chronic illnesses. In 2020, an estimated 5.8 million people used LTSS delivered in home and community settings, and 1.9...

Dina Product Manager Wants You to Break Up With Your Fax Machine

Dina Product Manager Wants You to Break Up With Your Fax Machine

Most benefit coordination is bogged down by time-consuming tasks– phone calls, faxes, multiple emails–to identify and activate services for members. And as people continue to age in place, the demand for a full range of services to support them intensifies.  Jacqui...

HCBS Conference 2023: Key Takeaways for Medicaid Plans

HCBS Conference 2023: Key Takeaways for Medicaid Plans

As of April, Medicaid was serving almost one in four Americans. However, most Medicaid plans struggle to unlock benefits and coordinate personal services that could help seniors stay in their homes safely and longer. This was a central theme of the recent Home and...

Aging In Place Remodeling Can Enable Independence

Aging In Place Remodeling Can Enable Independence

Supporting people who are aging in place often requires basic home modifications like removing trip hazards and installing grab bars, handrails and other assistive devices. These changes can help people reduce the risk of falls and stay home safely. “Aging in place...

Despite Growth, Dual Special Needs Plan Retention is Challenging

Despite Growth, Dual Special Needs Plan Retention is Challenging

The continued growth in the Dual Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) space is tempered only by the frustration associated with members who can (and do) switch throughout the course of the year. The 2023 Dual Eligible Retention Study from Deft Research found that dual eligible...

Medicare Advantage Trends & Opportunities Report

Medicare Advantage Trends & Opportunities Report

Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment has been on a steady climb for the past two decades, following changes in policy designed to encourage a robust role for private plan options in Medicare. In 2023, 30.8 million people are enrolled in a MA plan, accounting for more...

CMS Star Ratings: Strategies to Improve MA Member Satisfaction

CMS Star Ratings: Strategies to Improve MA Member Satisfaction

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have long been accountable for quality performance, and Stars, the CMS quality assessment program, is an important measure. CMS Star Ratings help MA plans attract members and earn financial incentives. Plans with higher Star Ratings are...

Aging in Place: MA Plans Help People Grow Older at Home

Aging in Place: MA Plans Help People Grow Older at Home

As Americans age, their desire to stay in their homes remains steadfast. According to the AARP, 77% of adults aged 50 and older want to remain in their homes for the long term — a number that has remained unchanged for more than 10 years now.  But unexpected medical...

MA Special Needs Plans: Promises & Challenges

MA Special Needs Plans: Promises & Challenges

The number of Medicare Advantage (MA) Special Needs Plans (SNPs) has surged in enrollment, growing its member base by more than twofold from 2020 to 2022. This influx of new members has generated an opportunity to achieve better health outcomes for targeted groups of...

Improve CAHPS Scores With Better Benefits Navigation

Improve CAHPS Scores With Better Benefits Navigation

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans work hard to be highly responsive to member needs, whether it's meal delivery, transportation, home modification or other in-home supplemental services. To deliver a five-star experience, many innovative health plans have made an...

How MA In-Home Support Services Improve Member Satisfaction

How MA In-Home Support Services Improve Member Satisfaction

Since CMS began allowing Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to offer supplemental benefits, the popularity of those benefits has taken off. In just three years, the number of plans offering In-Home Support Services (IHSS) has skyrocketed by 364%, and plans with caregiver...