As Medicare Advantage plans look to incorporate non-skilled home care as a supplemental benefit, CareLinx provides national scale, expertise and a cost-effective platform to roll-out the benefit efficiently

Dec. 5, BURLINGAME, Calif. CareLinx, the leading nationwide online home caregiver network, today announced the national launch of Medicare At Home. The product enables Medicare Advantage plans to safely and efficiently enhance their supplemental benefits with non-skilled home care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently reported that nearly 270 MA plans will be providing enrollees with new types of supplemental benefits, including expanded health-related supplemental benefits such as adult day care services, in-home and caregiver support services. Health insurers now have the opportunity to partner with CareLinx to roll-out in-home care and caregivers support services in their Medicare Advantage products, including Supplemental Benefit, Chronic Disease Management and VAIS, to better address the social determinant factors of health that impact their members.

CareLinx is the first and only national caregiver network equipped with the proven experience and scalability necessary for operationalizing these services for large health plans.

“We believe that quality in-home care support is an integral part of managing and maintaining good health and positive well-being, and we’re thrilled to see that the CMS agrees. It’s exciting to see the large number of health plans that have already begun incorporating non-skilled home care in their Medicare products. As we see more MA plans looking to incorporate non-skilled home care into their plan designs, CareLinx is looking forward to becoming a trusted partner for the payers that manage those plans across the U.S.,” said Sherwin Sheik, Founder and CEO of CareLinx. “Together, CareLinx and national health plans can improve member satisfaction, reduce emergency room and hospital utilization, and drive down costs over time.”

For the country’s largest health payers, there are clear and measurable benefits to incorporating home care into Medicare Advantage plans:

  • Improved Health Outcomes – Assistance with closing gaps in care, promotion of self-management
  • Reduced Medical Costs – Reliable home support post-discharge, reduced emergency room and hospital readmissions for high-risk members, shortened post-acute skilled services, reduced total cost of care through scalable in-home care management
  • Enhanced Quality Performance – Enhanced support and member experience impacts STARs/CAHPS bonus potential and may lead to membership growth over time
  • Reputation Value – Positive Medicare experiences for members and family caregivers leads to better retention and promotion of the health plan across communities

Medicare At Home enhances care management and care transition programs by connecting clinical teams to in-home caregivers, who are able to provide actionable insights on high-risk members to better address the social determinant factors of health impacting these members, such as meals, social isolation and mobility. The program offers a multi-step care coordination process that begins when a member is discharged from an acute setting, such as a hospitalization. The care management team identifies and refers members who require in-home activities of daily living (ADL) support to CareLinx. A dedicated CareLinx Care Advisor assists every member throughout their entire caregiving journey including guiding them through the caregiver matching process, after which the member reviews, interviews and hires the perfect caregiver for the job.

With the CareLinx built-in home visit plan and electronic visit verification, the caregiver delivers superior care, capturing real-time health data for the members’ clinical team. Finally, the CareLinx caregiver provides visibility and actionable insights into health issues before the member’s health declines, enabling prevention and intervention opportunities in real-time.

Data supports the inclusion of non-skilled home care services in Medicare Advantage plans. According to Health Affairs, the annual waste on poor care transition management adds up to $45 billion. And the annual Medicare spend on avoidable hospital readmissions after discharge is $17 billion, per the Center for Health Information and Analysis.

“Medicare At Home is a new opportunity for health plans to improve member satisfaction, health outcomes and operational ROI simultaneously. We expect to see high rates of adoption from our nation’s leading payers,” said Sheik.

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About CareLinx
CareLinx is in-home care, fundamentally re-engineered with technology at its core. Professional caregivers leverage digital in-home visit plans to better assist the elderly, and people with chronic health conditions with activities of daily living. Hiring caregivers through CareLinx can save families as much as 20 percent compared to traditional agencies. The CareLinx platform helps families and caregivers easily manage all the administrative tasks of their caregiving needs, including time tracking, care coordination, and payroll processing.

CareLinx has a nationwide network of over 300,000 tech-enabled caregivers. The CareLinx platform dramatically improves transparency through the digitalization and validation of care plan tasks in the home via mobile technology, and facilitates active coordination in the post-acute care environment, leading to increased quality of care, better health outcomes, and reduced total cost of care.

CareLinx has also been selected by AARP as their Preferred Nationwide Home Care Partner for their 35 million members. Visit us at carelinx.com/medicare-at-home.

For press inquiries:
Ashley Dennison
(888) 280-4297
press@carelinx.com