With Some Supplemental Benefits on the Decline for 2024, Do Payers Just See Them as Marketing Tools?

November 2

Fewer Medicare Advantage plans are using Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) to offer non-primarily health-related benefits (NPHRB) in 2024, according to an Oct. 30 report on 2024 non-medical supplemental benefits from ATI Advisory, funded by the SCAN Foundation. The health care research and advisory services firm observed some significant changes across supplemental benefit categories, and one social determinants of health (SDOH) expert expressed disappointment in MA organizations’ uptake of these benefits.

About 30% of MA plans are offering any NPHRB for 2024, just a 2.4% increase from the current plan year. And while fewer plans are using SSBCI to offer these benefits, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model got a boost, with 10.4% of MA plans offering NPHRBs through the VBID model in 2024 vs. 5.5% of plans in 2023. (Plans participating in the newly extended VBID model are required to start offering supplemental benefits that address key SDOH in 2025, and ATI suggested some payers may be getting a jump on this.)

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Radar on Medicare Advantage

Carina Belles

Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.