CareSource to offer Medicare Advantage in Ohio

Dayton Daily News - 9/27/2016

Sept. 27--CareSource will offer Medicare Advantage coverage in Ohio for the first time next year after rolling out advantage plans in Kentucky and Indiana earlier this year, officials at the downtown Dayton-based health insurance company said Tuesday.

Medicare -- the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and younger people with disabilities -- contracts with individual insurers to sell advantage plans, which offer the same benefits as traditional Medicare, plus benefits such as wellness programs, vision and dental care that are not covered by traditional Medicare.

In addition, advantage plans also come with caps on annual out of pocket costs, yielding significant cost savings for seniors with exorbitant medical costs.

While traditional Medicare still covers the majority of the 57 million people on Medicare, about 30 percent of enrollees were in a Medicare Advantage plan this year, according to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). Since 2004, the number of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicaid Advantage plans has more than tripled from 5.3 million to 17.6 million in 2016, KFF found.

The popularity of Medicare Advantage plans has led a growing number of insurers and health care providers throughout the state to offer the plans, including Dayton-based Premier Health, and have the potential for tremendous growth going forward, experts say.

CareSource recently moved into new office space on the third and fourth floors of Kettering Tower, where it will house about 260 workers. Overall, the company has about 2,000 employees in the Dayton area, and 2,900 company wide.

Open enrollment for new Medicare plans begins Oct. 15, and runs through Dec. 7

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