Alignment Healthcare and Brown & Toland Physicians Seek to Expand Care and Coverage to Seniors in Marin County
Independent physician group and Medicare Advantage insurance provider to offer Medicare-eligible Bay Area residents more health care and insurance options, pending regulatory approval
Brown & Toland Physicians, a network of more than 2,700 Bay Area doctors, and Alignment Healthcare, a Medicare Advantage insurance provider, have signed an agreement to work together to offer Medicare-eligible residents in Marin County access to more health care and insurance options.
.@AlignmentHealth and @BrownandToland to offer residents in Marin County, California, access to more Medicare Advantage options in 2020, pending approval
Earlier this year, Alignment filed an application with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand its Northern California service area. If approved, Alignment would begin offering Medicare Advantage plans to Marin County residents in October 2019 and enrollees could seek “in-network” care with Brown & Toland Physicians starting Jan. 1, 2020.
“For more than 25 years, Brown & Toland has been dedicated to putting the health of our patients first, and it was important to us to expand our services to Medicare Advantage members in Marin County,” said Kelly Robison, Brown & Toland’s CEO. “We serve hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area, and we hope this agreement with Alignment allows more of them to keep their Brown & Toland doctor when choosing a Medicare Advantage plan.”
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Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private companies that contract with CMS to provide all the benefits and coverage people receive from traditional Medicare, but often with extra benefits included such as prescription drug coverage and vision and hearing exams. Unlike traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans manage care delivery through a specific network of primary care physicians and specialists to better coordinate care and practice preventive medicine, at lower costs.
Marin County has the oldest and fastest aging population in the Bay Area, with 3 of every 10 county residents aged 65 years or older, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments, a nine-county regional planning agency. Coupled with the fact that the cost of living in Marin is among the highest in the country – where a family of four earning a six-figure salary is classified as low-income2 by the federal government – the need for more affordable and more accessible health care is clear.
“At Alignment Healthcare, we understand how valuable it is to have trusted doctors in your corner, especially as people grow older,” said Dawn Maroney, Alignment’s consumer president. “We are thrilled to work with Brown & Toland to give their Medicare-eligible patients in Marin County the opportunity to keep their doctor and enjoy the benefits that Alignment members have become accustomed to.”
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Powered by its proprietary command center technology called AVA®, Alignment has created a model of health care delivery that combines high-touch care coordination with high tech to improve quality of care and lower costs. In 2019, Alignment rolled out its ACCESS On-Demand Concierge, a program that provides members with access to concierge-level member services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at no additional cost. The company has rapidly grown its service area since it was founded in Orange County in 2013, now serving nearly 50,000 Medicare Advantage members in California alone.
“We are humbled by the opportunity to serve the residents of Marin County,” said John Kao, Alignment Healthcare founder and CEO. “Seniors should have the freedom to live where they want to live and receive the quality of care they deserve. As Alignment Healthcare continues to grow, we remain committed to teaming up with doctors and care specialists like Brown & Toland who share that philosophy.”
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