How are Medicare Advantage plans offering supplemental benefits that support independence at home?

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offering supplemental benefits to help older adults remain independent at home are becoming more common, but these benefits remain limited in scope, inconsistently provided over time, and about half of plans require cost-sharing—raising concerns about meaningful access for aging beneficiaries.

In a national analysis of 2020–2025 Medicare Advantage plan benefit package and enrollment data, the PROPEL team examined trends in supplemental benefits supporting independence at home—including caregiver support, home modifications, and in-home services. Across the study period, 2,993 plans offering at least one such benefit were available to Medicare beneficiaries, with the share of plans offering any benefit increasing from 14.5% in 2020 to 30.7% in 2025, and enrollment rising from 5.3 to 14.7 million beneficiaries.

Despite this growth, comprehensive benefit offerings were not available, and semi-comprehensive benefits (≥4 services) remained limited, increasing only slightly from 0.6% to 0.9% of plans from 2020-2025. Among plans continuously offered over time, only 31.5% consistently provided at least one benefit, and none consistently offered semi-comprehensive benefits.

Access was further constrained by cost-sharing: about half of plans offering these benefits required beneficiaries to pay out-of-pocket, with only modest increases in reduced cost-sharing over time.

While the availability of supplemental benefits supporting aging at home is expanding, these findings highlight persistent gaps in consistency, comprehensiveness, and affordability that may limit their real-world impact. Future work should examine whether these benefits meaningfully improve independence and quality of life for older adults—and how to better align offerings with beneficiary needs. 

Article link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-026-10379-6