Non-medical Supplemental Benefits, Health Service Utilization, and Health Outcomes in Medicare Advantage. - Project Summary Health-related social needs (HRSNs), such as food security, housing quality, reliable transportation, and social support, are important contributors to health. However, unmet HRSNs are prevalent in Medicare. Recently, Medicare embarked on an unprecedented large-scale initiative to address those unmet needs through the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. MA is a private alternative to Traditional Medicare (TM). MA plans can provide supplemental benefits not covered in TM. MA supplemental benefits were traditionally limited to Primarily Health-Related benefits, such as dental or vision care, that incur direct medical costs. In 2020, in an attempt to address HRSNs, this restriction was lifted and MA plans were allowed to offer non-medical supplemental benefits, such as food/produce, pest control, and living supports (e.g., utility coverage). Policy makers expect these benefits to help maintain or improve the health and functioning of chronically ill patients and thereby reduce use of costly acute care, such as hospitalizations. However, limited evidence is available to support this expectation. MA plans have rapidly adopted non-medical benefits. Adoption of these benefits is particularly high among dual-eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs), a type of MA plan that serves only individuals with both Medicare and Medicaid benefits (dual-eligible enrollees). Over 80% of D-SNPs offered at least one non-medical benefit in 2025. Despite this development, little is known about the use and value of MA’s non-medical benefits. It is also unclear whether the rapid adoption of non-medical benefits by D-SNPs improves health for dual-eligible enrollees, who often receive fragmented care. This proposed study will address these critical gaps by examining the relations between MA’s non-medical benefits, health care utilization, and patients’ health outcomes. It will also assess whether D-SNPs amplify impacts of non-medical benefits for dual-eligible beneficiaries. We will leverage MA plans’ staggered adoption of non-medical benefits over time and use a quasi-experimental design to obtain causal estimates of benefit impacts. This study will provide critical insights into an important policy question whether addressing HRSNs through private health insurers brings the intended outcomes. It will provide national evidence to help refine policy options to address HRSNs through MA’s non-medical supplemental benefits.
