Are Medicare Advantage Plans Using New Supplemental Benefit Flexibility to Address Enrollees’ Health-Related Social Needs?

Beginning in plan year 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) increased flexibility for Medicare Advantage plans to allow them to cover new benefits to help address enrollees’ health-related social needs or long-term care needs. This brief describes interviews with 10 Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare Advantage experts, and social service providers to discuss new benefits added under this flexibility and additional policy changes that may be needed to encourage wider adoption of these optional benefits. We also assess the resources available to provide these new benefits using publicly-available data from CMS.