Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Address Health-Related Social Needs

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offer benefits not covered by traditional Medicare known as supplemental benefits. These added benefits are a valuable component of the benefit package for Medicare beneficiaries. Supplemental benefits have long included primarily health-related benefits, and after recent regulatory and legislative changes, plans now offer a wider range of supplemental benefits to enrollees, particularly those with chronic conditions. Further, plans can tailor their supplemental benefits to better address members’ health-related social needs (HRSN). 

This analysis describes enrollees’ utilization of supplemental benefits overall and by demographic characteristics. Use of any supplemental benefit was examined as well as use of three commonly offered benefits uniquely designed to address HRSN: transportation, over-the-counter allowances, and grocery cards.