Private Payers News

UHC, Walgreens To Lower Medicare Costs Through Service Centers

UHC and Walgreens will also partner with AARP to offer lower Medicare costs through a Medicare Advantage health plan.

Medicare Advantage, UHC, access to care, prescription drug pricing, out-of-pocket healthcare spending

Source: Thinkstock

By Kelsey Waddill

- UnitedHealthcare (UHC) has announced a partnership with Walgreens and AARP that will open service centers for Medicare members in the store and provide added benefits to UHC’s Medicare Advantage members.

“We are expanding access to UnitedHealthcare Medicare resources to better serve our members, providing them with all the valuable benefits they have come to expect from their UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans plus delivering the customer service and information they desire locally within Walgreens,” said Mike Anderson, chief executive officer of the Medicare Part D business at UnitedHealthcare.

UHC’s partnership aims to tackle three major issues: Medicare literacy, out-of-pocket spending, and access to care and medications.

One of these centers’ goals is to boost Medicare education. Open enrollment navigators bear witness to the confusion seniors and caregivers experience in the face of Medicare decision-making. Navigators receive hundreds of calls per day from seniors trying to get a better grasp of the overall healthcare picture for Medicare enrollees.

Not only do Medicare enrollees and their caregivers struggle to understand the healthcare system, but they also face growing healthcare costs.

Although Medicare Advantage premiums are dropping, original Medicare premiums and Medicare Part A and Part B deductibles are on the rise.

Driven by these rising costs and other factors, seniors over the age of 65 spend on average 12 percent of their income on out-of-pocket spending, according to a recent study released by Kaiser Family Foundation examined seniors’ out-of-pocket spending in 2016.

Breaking down that statistic by age group, a predictable upward trend emerges as members age, with 65-year-olds and under contributing only seven percent of their income and those 85 years and older spending as much as 16 percent of their income on healthcare costs.

Some of this cost stems from high prescription drug spending. While policymakers have suggested many approaches to dealing with Medicare’s high prescription drug costs, progress has been slow. Medications remain difficult to access and expensive to purchase with little transparency about the pricing process.

To combat each of these problems and increase seniors’ resources and knowledge, the UHC Medicare stations will educate the Medicare community about their options and offer services to lower out-of-pocket healthcare spending.

The service advocates will discuss plan benefits with seniors and can enroll them in a UHC health plan. Through HouseCalls, a home visitation program available to seniors in UHC’s Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, UHC MA members have the opportunity to complete their annual wellness visits at the Walgreens-affiliated center. The centers seek to boost access to care, facilitating tests, care, and treatment in one, common location.

UHC and Walgreens are also partnering with AARP to provide UHC’s Medicare Advantage Walgreen plan. The plan emphasizes low-cost, accessible medications, which could improve medication adherence.

Many of the AARP Medicare Advantage Walgreens plans will offer $0 premiums and $0 copays for primary care services, preventive care, and generic drugs, thereby decreasing out-of-pocket spending. Other benefits will span an expansive healthcare network, dental coverage, vision benefits, and membership in a fitness program called Renew Active that targets both mental and physical health.

Although the partnership makes Walgreens the Medicare Advantage plan’s preferred retail pharmacy, members have the option to fill their prescriptions at another retail pharmacy or to receive their medications by mail-order through OptumRx.

However, at Walgreens, members’ prescription copays will be lower and further discounts are possible through Walgreens Balance Rewards program, as well as access to Walgreens’ digital tools and other in-store products.

The 14 service centers for UHC’s new health plans will launch at the beginning of January 2020. They will be located in stores across five cities: Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cleveland, Denver, and Memphis.

The 46 AARP Medicare Advantage Walgreens health plans will be available in 24 states which have a cumulative Medicare population of more than 16 million strong.

Seniors can enroll in the plan between now and December 7, 2019.