This week we are reading about the changes to Medicare Plan Finder, Integrity Marketing Group’s recent growth investment, Mutual of Omaha’s new healthy lifestyle program for Medicare Supplement customers, and the financial performance of the Medicare Advantage market compared to individual and group markets.
Medicare Plan Finder Gets an Upgrade for the First Time in a Decade | CMS | August 27, 2019
For the first time in a decade, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today launched a modernized and redesigned Medicare Plan Finder. The Medicare Plan Finder, the most used tool on Medicare.gov, allows users to shop and compare Medicare Advantage and Part D plans. There are more than 60 million people with Medicare coverage. The updated Medicare Plan Finder also provides them and their caregivers with a personalized experience through a mobile friendly and easy-to-read design that will help them learn about different options and select coverage that best meets their health needs. The new Plan Finder walks users through the Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollment process from start to finish and allows people to view and compare many of the supplemental benefits that Medicare Advantage plans offer.
Read the full article on CMS.gov here.
Integrity Marketing Group Welcomes Strategic Growth Investment | PRNewswire | August 28, 2019
Integrity Marketing Group (“Integrity”), the nation’s largest independent distributor of life and health insurance products to the Senior Market, today announced it received a strategic growth investment from funds managed by Harvest Partners (“Harvest”), a New York-based private equity firm with a 38-year history of investing in middle-market companies. Current investors HGGC and the management team will continue to collectively control a majority equity stake in Integrity. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Read the full press release on prnewswire.com here.
Mutual of Omaha to Offer New Healthy Lifestyle Program to Medicare Supplement Customers Nationwide | Yahoo! Finance | August 27, 2019
Mutual of Omaha will offer a new healthy lifestyle program, called Mutually Well, to its Medicare Supplement customers beginning October 1st under a new three-year agreement with Tivity Health (TVTY).
The new program will provide more than one million Mutual of Omaha customers affordable access to a comprehensive wellness program, including Tivity Health’s Prime® Fitness network of more than 10,000 fitness locations nationwide. Mutual of Omaha customers will also have access to a mobile app that will offer personalized daily plans, exercise programs, wellness tips and recipes, as well as discounts on healthy living products and services such as acupuncture and massage.
Financial Performance of Medicare Advantage, Individual, and Group Health Insurance Markets | Henry Kaiser Family Foundation | August 05, 2019
Medicare-for-All proposals have sparked discussion about the role of private health insurance in the U.S. health care system. Some of the current Medicare-for-All proposals would essentially eliminate private insurance. Others would allow private insurers to administer benefits under the new public program, similar to the role of Medicare Advantage plans today, which serve as a private-plan alternative to traditional Medicare. As context for these discussions, this brief examines and compares the financial performance of insurers in the Medicare Advantage, individual, and fully-insured group markets, using data reported by insurance companies to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and compiled by Mark Farrah Associates. Key findings include annual gross margins in the Medicare Advantage market averaged $1,608 per covered person between 2016 and 2018, about double the margins in the individual and group markets.