America's Benefit Specialist January-February 2023

MEDICARE MATTERS

through the program. Top fruits and vegetables purchased include bananas, lettuce, strawberries and cucumbers. “This is a great program for seniors,” said Ann Kinsella, Medica Vice Presi dent and General Manager. “Healthy Savings not only helps our members save money during these challenging economic times, it also encourages them to eat healthy foods.” Healthy Savings is easy to use. Mem bers who qualify for the program are sent a Healthy Savings card in the mail. They simply scan their card at check out. Or they can download an app that provides a barcode that can be scanned. Participating retailers include Cub Foods, Coborn’s, HyVee, Walmart and Baker’s (in Nebraska) and many more locations. Healthy Savings is provided through the Medicare Advantage Special Sup plemental Benefit for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) program. SSBCIs serve a subset of members—those with certain chron ic conditions. In addition to Healthy Savings, other Medica SSBCI benefits are available to members who work with a case manager and include programs that provide bath and home safety equip ment, transportation, home-delivered meals and palliative care. New for 2023, Medica also is offering on select plans rewards in the form of gift cards to major retailers for annual physical and other preventive mea sures. Through these rewards—along with dental, eyewear, over-the-counter allowances and the Healthy Savings benefit—some of Medica’s Medicare Advantage plans provide more than $2,000 in benefits per member per year. Medica (www.medica.com) is a nonprofit health plan headquartered in Minnesota..

most likely to switch plans, and, not surprisingly, Deft Research found brain fitness was among the top new benefits cited by people who switched plans.” BrainHQ’s benefits include signif icant gains in standard measures of cognition (attention, processing speed, memory and decision making), in stan dard measures of quality of life (depres sive symptoms, confidence and control, safety, health-related quality of life) and in real-world measures (balance, gait, driving, hearing and work). BrainHQ offers dozens of comput erized exercises driven by algorithms to monitor progress and suggest a personalized brain exercise regimen for each user. BrainHQ is now offered, without charge, as a benefit by leading national and 5-star Medicare Advan tage plans and by hundreds of clinics, libraries and communities. Try a Brain HQ exercise for free daily at http://www. brainhq.com. MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PROGRAMS HELP EASE THE STRUGGLES OF RISING FOOD COSTS FOR SENIORS With food prices increasing at an annual rate of 13.5% according to the Consumer Price Index, a rate not seen for more than 43 years, some seniors are finding ways to save on how much they spend on healthy food with special programs available through Medicare Advantage health plans. Medica’s Healthy Savings benefit gives qualified members the opportu nity to save up to 50% on fresh fruits and vegetables, up to $65 each quarter. About 83% of Medica’s MA members qualify for the program. Medica Medicare members have saved more than $1.43 million through the program since 2020. Nearly 250,000 transactions have been completed

MEMORY FITNESS AMONG FASTEST-GROWING MA BENEFITS Gymmemberships have long been the most popular preventive benefit offered by Medicare Advantage plans, with most plans offering some type of fitness benefit at no charge. A recent analysis of 2022 federal data reveals that a new type of fitness bene fit—memory fitness—is among the fastest-growing preventive health ben efits. According to Posit Science, the BrainHQ online brain fitness program is the choice of most Medicare Advantage organizations across the United States offering a memory fitness supplemen tal benefit. Memory fitness is a relatively new benefit. It was first permitted under a regulatory change for 2019, and, starting in 2021, the government asked plans to differentiate among physical fitness (such as gymmemberships), wearable fitness trackers and memory fitness programs. “There’s tremendous interest among seniors in building and main Science. “Independent surveys show again and again that cognitive aging is the top concern of older adults, even out-ranking physical health, financial and relationship concerns. That top concern about aging is re flected in the rapid growth of memory fitness benefits. According to the 2022 federal data, one out of four plans that offer a physical fitness program now also offer a memory fitness program, making it the fastest-growing category of fitness benefits. “Our own market research indicates that ‘mind/body’ fitness really resonates with older adults new to Medicare,” Dr. Mahncke added. “They’re also the folks taining brain health,” observed Dr. Henry Mahncke, CEO of Posit

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