Add Meal Delivery to Enhance Your Medicare Advantage Benefits

Add Meal Delivery to Enhance Your Benefits

When consumers shop for Medicare Advantage plans, they also shop for supplemental benefits. Benefits like fitness coverage and meal delivery “fill in the gaps” for consumers, helping them live healthier, more independent lives. 

Your organization stands out by offering Medicare Advantage meal delivery and other supplemental benefits. It also improves member satisfaction, which can generate word-of-mouth referrals, optimized STAR ratings, and an overall increased bottom line. 

As you determine  which benefits you’ll offer in the next enrollment period, here are three evidence-backed reasons to consider Medicare Advantage home-delivered meals:

Medicare Advantage Food Benefits Are No Longer a Bonus, But Standard

According to a 2022 Better Medicare Alliance survey, 69 percent of Medicare Advantage plans offer a meal benefit to seniors. That’s more than two-thirds of MAOs currently operating. When people shop for plans, this is one of the top benefits they seek. If you aren’t offering it, your program could be overlooked. 

Offering Medically Tailored Medicare Advantage Meal Delivery Drives Growth

This ties in with the previous point, as offering Medicare Advantage plan meal delivery makes your program more attractive to prospective members. Our data shows that providing supplemental benefits drives increases in MAOs’ member rolls and that meal plan benefits are one of the biggest growth drivers for both post-discharge patients and those living with chronic conditions. 

Providing Medicare Advantage Plan Meal Delivery Can Save You Money

When individuals with certain conditions and activity limitations regularly eat nutritious food, their health generally improves. This translates to fewer hospital readmissions and emergency room visits, which, according to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, can save payers $13.6 billion annually. 

Additionally, the study found these individuals experienced fewer nursing home visits and lower healthcare expenditures compared to individuals who did not regularly eat medically tailored meals. 

For many recipients, Medicare Advantage food benefits address a key aspect of the social determinants of health. These factors, identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are environmental and social factors that impact an individual’s health and well-being. Access to nutritious foods is one of these factors, and it’s linked to lower rates of obesity, various conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, and increased life expectancy. 

Working with LiveWell with Traditions

There are many Medicare Advantage meal delivery providers in the market, and they are not all created equal. At LiveWell with Traditions, we pride ourselves on offering a program designed to improve patient clinical outcomes. We offer meal plans tailored for those in the post-acute discharge period, dual-eligibility spaces, and individuals living with chronic illnesses. 

Here are a few more unique advantages we offer our partner MAOs:

• HIPAA and HITECH compliance readiness – LiveWell’s IT policy and proprietary software exceed HIPAA/HITECH compliance standards, and we deploy flexible, secure data exchange options for eligibility, discharge, billing, and reporting. That includes our proprietary and secure technology platform using the same cloud storage as the FBI/CIA/NSA (AWS GovCloud), a highly secure and integrable cloud-based system with data encryption to prevent breaches. 
• Specialty menus designed by LiveWell’s in-house team of registered dietitians to address specific chronic conditions and support wellbeing.
• A superior service experience that optimizes STARS and CAHPS, and delivers full visibility and confidence for your team through the entire process and relationship.
• National reach through 50+ distribution sites across the country – so you work with a single vendor with a nationwide footprint.
• Comprehensive real-time reporting solutions that offer unparalleled flexibility in delivery and customization to meet your specific needs.
• Rich reporting and 24/7 access to our highly secure web portal – run real-time, customized reports on program usage, service experience, and customer call center metrics, and pull actionable data that provide visibility into your meal benefit, observational notes on your members’ health, and customized billing and SLA options.

LiveWell with Traditions Makes Offering Medicare Advantage Meal Delivery Easy

As an MAO, you know that providing meals for individuals with chronic conditions plays a vital role in reducing and avoiding hospitalizations. You also know it gives you a huge competitive advantage. To learn more about how our meal program can help you manage costs and increase your revenue, contact LiveWell with Traditions today.