The Medicare Advantage organization SCAN Group is sending a pointed message to health care consumers — health insurance is broken.
Many hospices rely on private insurance for non-senior patients, as well as Medicare Advantage plans and other payers for other services such as palliative care or home health. SCAN is launching a public information campaign designed to educate consumers and others in the health care space about issues in the insurance marketplace.
“The cracks are everywhere. You don’t need to be somebody who works in this industry to know that. You just need to be a patient in American health care,” SCAN Group CEO Dr. Sachin Jain told Hospice News. “You know from the first minute that you get your explanation of benefits that a lot of the things you need may not be covered. Lots of plans have very low dollar coverage in this country at this point. And then there’s the experience of actually getting your care, where there’s tons of access issues.”
A centerpiece of the multi-faceted, multi-media campaign is a video entitled Health Insurance is Broken that examines the frustrations that many people in the United States experience with their insurance. Further resources provide a look into what SCAN is doing to drive change.
SCAN Group, a nonprofit, operates the Medicare Advantage plan SCAN Health Plan, which services more than 310,000 members across California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Washington and New Mexico. It also operates several medical groups, including Healthcare in Action, Welcome Health, Homebase Medical and myPlace Health, as well as community services Independence at Home subsidiary.
The campaign launched in advance of the Medicare open enrollment period, which begins Oct. 15. It will run through December in markets that SCAN serves. The campaign will air across broadcast, cable, connected TV, radio, digital, print, billboards, bus wraps and transit shelters.
Nearly 42% of people in the United States report delaying or going without health care due to costs or coverage gaps, according to a 2023 report from the Commonwealth Fund.
“People are stuck in endless cycles of approvals. They’re caught off guard with bills that they didn’t expect. They’re not able to get the drugs that they need authorized,” SCAN Chief Marketing Officer Nishant Shukla told Hospice News. “Our opportunity here was to just tell the truth. Rather than painting platitudes of people doing yoga on the beach, we wanted to talk about the stark truth and the experience that many have in the health insurance system today.”