Anthem Announces New Essential Extras Benefits
Are you looking for a carrier that stays ahead of the game? If so, Anthem may be your best choice. The carrier has made huge strides to separate itself from the rest of the Medicare Advantage providers this year from developing new Over The Counter benefits and more.
So, what is the latest “Anthem did it again” story?Well, it starts with the new CMS regulation to include Social Determinants of Health for 2019 Med Advantage plans and Anthem being the first carrier to promote it. Anthem titles the new program “Essential Extras Benefits” and it takes advantage of a new regulation by CMS released this past April of 2018.
The new regulation of Social Determinants is a huge step toward lifestyle improvement. It allows MA carriers to add more supplemental benefits to their plans if “they compensate for physical impairments,
diminish the impact of injuries or health conditions, and/or reduce avoidable emergency room utilization.” This allows carriers to have some flexibility in adding other benefits to improve their client’s overall health. These new benefits have nothing to do with prescriptions or seeing more doctors but changes to their lifestyles.
THE GOAL FOR THE NEW BENEFITS IS LIFESTYLE IMPROVEMENTS
For example, Personal Home Helper: this is a health aide that will come to the house to perform medical necessity tasks, such as cleaning, laundry, and meal prep for up to 124 hours per year. Anthem also released the Assistive Devices benefit which is an annual allowance of $500 to go towards such things as senior-proofing a bathroom, an air conditioner, or a humidifier. Another benefit is called Day Center Visit, which is “Adult Daycare” 1 day per week up to 8 hours per day.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND ANTHEM'S NEW ESSENTIAL EXTRA BENEFITS?
In total Anthem built 6 new benefits into their HMO and DSNP plans across Central states as well as Texas, Virginia, Georgia, and New Jersey. These benefits increase the attractiveness of Anthem’s portfolio this season and the big winner is truly the client!
To learn more about how to enroll your clients into these benefits, please reach out to our office or attend one of Anthem’s upcoming webinars.
Good selling folks-make your own good luck.
Rebecca Gordon
