Bold Goal Saw Better Medicare Advantage Health Outcomes in 2020

May 19, 2021 - In 2020, Humana’s Bold Goal program saw better Medicare Advantage health outcomes in physical and mental healthcare than the payer's Medicare Advantage community overall, Humana’s most recent Bold Goal report revealed.

“We are at a pivotal moment in our country’s history as we work to get through the COVID pandemic. Actions we are taking now – and commitments we are making for the years ahead – enable us to continue helping the people we serve have more Healthy Days and better lives,” Bruce Broussard, president and chief executive officer at Humana, said in the press release.

“Humana’s Bold Goal approach shows that it is helping improve members’ health – even during the toughest health crises – and reinforces the importance of social health needs in overall health.”

In the Bold Goal program, Humana has zeroed in on certain social determinants of health that result in members experiencing more unhealthy days. Food insecurity, transportation, and isolation are three key areas of focus for the payer. The payer tracks healthy and unhealthy days according to the CDC metric.

The pandemic dealt a significant blow to mental health across the nation in 2020. Humana’s Medicare Advantage communities were no exception. The overall Medicare Advantage population saw a 5.4 percent increase in unhealthy days compared to the baseline year, 2015.

However, in Bold Goal communities, Medicare Advantage members saw a smaller increase in mental health unhealthy days. The 2020 unhealthy days for mental health in Bold Goal communities exhibited a 2.2 percent increase over the 2015 Unhealthy Days.

Bold Goal Medicare Advantage communities also saw a bigger drop in physical Unhealthy Days than Humana’s Medicare Advantage communities overall.

While the overall Medicare Advantage population improved its health by decreasing 2.4 percent in physical unhealthy days compared to the 2015 baseline, Bold Goal communities’ physical unhealthy days dropped by 5.1 percent.

From 2015 to 2020, the trend in unhealthy days has been decreasing across vulnerable populations.

Members with the low-income subsidy saw the biggest improvement, with a 6.3 percent drop in unhealthy days over the five year timeframe. Members with disabilities saw 3.7 percent fewer unhealthy days and those diagnosed with depression saw 3.5 percent fewer unhealthy days. Dual eligibles also saw a slight improvement in their unhealthy day trend.

Of the seven original cities where the Bold Goal program started, five experienced a downward trend in the number of unhealthy days over the past five years. Only Louisville, Kentucky and Broward County, Florida saw increases in the number of unhealthy days.

The payer also conducted screenings to assess social determinants of health barriers that might be impacting Bold Goal communities’ wellbeing. For 2020, the program set a baseline of 3 million screenings as their objective. Humana announced that the actual number of screenings was more than double what the payer had intended, with over 6,157,000 events.

As a result of this influx of data, Humana learned that 41.7 percent of Bold Goal members faced food insecurity. Additionally, 35.1 percent struggled with accessing medical transportation and 26.0 percent had accessibility issues with non-medical transportation. Other fractions of the population reported financial strain, housing insecurity, and loneliness.

Humana’s Basic Needs Program—which was specifically designed to serve the needs that arose during the coronavirus pandemic—received up to 2,000 requests per day and responded by delivering over 1.1 million meals to more than 78,000 members.

These results underscore the great need for support community health partnerships and strategies to help low-income and senior communities gain access to healthy, reliable food resources.

To Humana leaders, the takeaway was that proactive interventions are just as essential as reactive support.

“We can see that taking a proactive approach – talking to members and meeting their very personal needs – helped us focus our outreach, resources and efforts to support them when they needed us most,” said William Shrank, MD, chief medical and corporate affairs officer at Humana.

“We remain committed to addressing health disparities and care gaps in our communities and breaking down barriers to drive lasting change.”

The Humana Bold Goal program started in 2015 with seven communities to address social determinants of health and has since scaled up to 16 communities and expanded on its original vision.