Alignment Health Shares How Medicare Advantage Can Be Done Right with Congress
With a successful track record for high-quality, low-cost care, Alignment Health was invited before Congress to offer perspectives and lessons, and to share how we are doing Medicare Advantage Right for more than 200,000 members across five states. All of our members are enrolled in a 4-star plan or higher, and we’re proud to be one of just nine Medicare Advantage organizations nationwide with 5-star plans.
Yesterday, Dawn Maroney, president of Alignment Health and CEO of Alignment Health Plan, served as a witness in front of the House Committee on Ways and Means Health and Oversight subcommittees in a joint hearing about the past lessons, present insights and future opportunities of Medicare Advantage (MA).
During the hearing, she shared our key learnings and successes, and how they are a model for thoughtful governmental policy – one that facilitates quality outcomes for beneficiaries and value for taxpayers in the MA program.
Of note, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell asked about how Alignment manages to keep its denial rate low – a rate that is far below the industry average.
In response, Ms. Maroney said, “We take pride in that. There are a lot of referrals that people go through that should be auto approved; there should be no hold time.”
Ms. Maroney also added why prevention is critical at Alignment:
“We have a belief system through our Jump Start Assessment program, for every new enrollee that enrolls into the program, it is our goal to see them immediately, within the first 90 days, or 120 days, to make sure there is no continuity of care issue.”
Rep. Sewell concluded about Alignment that “it sounds like on the front end, you’re trying to prevent chronic diseases, and in doing so, you’re saving money and obviously, saving people’s lives.”
This is the beginning of an important dialogue focused on finding more solutions to support the growing U.S. senior population. We look forward to more discussions on how to best care for America’s seniors.
Ms. Maroney’s opening statement: https://waysandmeans.house.gov/event/joint-subcommittee-hearing-on-medicare-advantage-past-lessons-present-insights-future-opportunities/