America's Benefit Specialist June 2023

MEDICARE MATTERS

MEDICARE PRODUCT NEWS

ment adding significant enhancements to its algorithms, front-end design and cyber security.” He concluded, “EOS will help our agents to build their client relationships by bringing them a unique resource, and will incrementally increase agent revenue without adding overhead in this high-volume, complex, irregular area of insurance. Rendering Medicare advice is a high-val ue relationship proposition for an agent, but its complexity and per transaction low dollar commission lends itself to our automated, white-labeled model. We see this as a natural fit for our agency and brokerage partners, business owners and hardworking entrepreneurs like the professionals at Applied, who want to improve the scope of their value to insureds by always striving to be the essential source for essential prod ucts and services, of which healthcare is central. We will be scheduling a limited release of EOS with select agents for the coming annual enrollment period starting this fall, continu ing with a full rollout across 2024 with comprehensive retail advertising support.” For further information, visit www.auw.com. HUMANA AND LONGEVITY HEALTH PARTNER TO EXPAND ACCESS TO SPECIAL NEEDS PLANS FOR MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES Longevity Health Plan and Humana Inc. have announced a partnership to expand special needs health plan offerings that support the unique requirements of Medicare-eligible individuals living in skilled nursing and senior living facilities. The companies have committed to rapidly scale their national partnership over the next three years in more than a dozen states by offering special needs plans (SNPs) that pro vide personalized care designed to materially improve health outcomes through holistic, patient-centric care plans. The partnership will launch in South Carolina and Georgia this year and expand to five more states in 2024, with addi tional states being added in 2025. Longevity deploys a partnership approach with skilled nursing facility operators via a transparent value-based model that rewards facilities for improving quality of care and member experience. Longevity collaborates with facilities to provide comprehensive care that addresses the medical, so cial and emotional needs of members who reside there, typi cally vulnerable individuals with multiple complex conditions. “We are thrilled to partner with Humana to offer our inno vative, value-based model, which means high-quality care and more personalized attention for its members and greater peace of mind for members’ families,” said Dr. René Lerer, CEO of Longevity Health. “With the support of the entire clin ical team, our local facility-based clinicians provide direct care to members onsite, where they are most comfortable. Our

APPLIED UNDERWRITERS LAUNCHES MGA TO BRING HEALTHCARE ACCESS TECHNOLOGY TO AGENTS AND BROKERS FOR THEIR CLIENTS’ MEDICARE NEEDS Applied Underwriters is completing the development of EOS, an MGA and technology platform for use by independent agents and brokers in offering the best available healthcare arrangement for their clients’ Medicare needs. The EOS tech nology platform will allow insurance producers to provide a white-labeled web app to their clients that will assist in evaluating Medicare needs, provide live quotes and instant enrollments in plan alternatives. According to Jamie Sahara, president of Applied Under writers, the Medicare buying decision often falls through the cracks between traditional P&C, health and life insurance producers, with many buyers ultimately making suboptimal plan selections: “Medicare decisions are complicated and daunting. The marketplace in every state for Medicare Ad vantage Plans and Medicare Supplement Insurance is large. There are a wide range of choices available to consumers, but the plan alternatives can vary significantly in the ultimate economics for the buyer based on unique medical needs, benefit preferences and expected medical usage. EOS has the capability to review every credible plan offered in the marketplace, match it to the buyer’s circumstances, and then recommend the optimal, most cost-effective Medicare plans presenting an explanation and the economics associated with each alternative.” Sahara went on to describe competition in the private Medicare retail space: “We perceive a large-scale opportunity as our competitors are mostly phone-based marketers sup ported by limited function web apps targeting consumers to gather leads. These organizations typically focus on some specific carrier appointment rather than providing a broad based, unbiased marketing analysis given the actual needs and ultimate costs for an individual.” According to Steve Menzies, chairman of Applied Under writers, during the fall of 2022 the company bought the intel lectual property rights from a failed InsurTech for technology that optimizes consumer Medicare buying decisions through a proprietary optimization algorithm and the automated gathering of precise insurer plan benefits and costs: “It was a great idea that didn’t make it to market. So many InsurTechs struggle to bring out good ideas after expending large amounts of investment capital only to discover that success fully running an insurance underwriting and distribution operation is in actuality a difficult and complicated matter.” Menzies continued, “We are currently completing the system design and build-out for this product, which we have branded EOS, within Applied’s own development environ

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