As a leader on the forefront of Medicare Advantage, Sachin Jain, MD, CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan, is charged with leading the organization’s growth, diversification, and emerging efforts to reduce health care disparities. We are thrilled that he will be joining us at Health Evolution’s 2023 Summit, being held April 19-21 at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel and Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort. Ahead of the 2023 Summit, Dr. Jain sat down with Ashley Antonelli, our Senior Manager of Executive Communications, to discuss what he’s looking forward to in Laguna and what health care leaders can take away from his Summit main stage discussion on Medicare Advantage.
What are you looking forward to at this year’s Summit?
There are very few meetings in health care that bring together the collection of people that Health Evolution Summit convenes. The environment creates a forum in which people can really have candid conversations about where the industry is going, and there are very few other forums like it.
You’re taking the stage at 2023 Summit as a Discussion Leader in our Big Discussion: The New Medicare Advantage Majority – Where Do We Go from Here?. As a leader at the forefront of MA, what are you hoping other health care leaders learn about Medicare Advantage coming out of the conversation?
Medicare Advantage is a popular program because it addresses the deficiencies that exist within the fee-for-service Medicare program, but I think Medicare Advantage’s popularity almost snuck up on us, with about 50% of the Medicare-eligible population now enrolled in an MA plan. And so I think now is an important moment for us to take stock of the program—take stock of how it’s organized, how it’s structured, and how it does or doesn’t deliver. It’s a program that has worked well, but it could work better. There is opportunity for us to think about what the health care infrastructure for Medicare beneficiaries truly looks like in this country and what’s missing from the program. In many ways, I think we’ve made the program too complicated and we should be moving toward simplifying benefits, simplifying their administration, and ultimately trying to control costs for the health care system, but also truly measure quality and compete on performance. Medicare Advantage plans should hold themselves to a much higher standard. We have to deliver quality to the people who entrust us with their care.
At Summit, we look to foster collaboration and shared learnings by bringing different leaders and groups across health care together. SCAN Group recently announced an exciting combination with CareOregon. Where do you see the biggest opportunities and advantages to create linkages and merge best practices between Medicare Advantage and Medicaid through this combination?
Medicare and Medicaid programs focus on serving populations with distinct needs, and there’s opportunity for SCAN Group and CareOregon to learn from each other and leverage those lessons to better serve our populations while also creating a secure and sustainable future for our offerings.
What keeps you coming back to Health Evolution’s Summit?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I took stock of how and where I was spending my time. I want to be in places where I’m going to be able to have high-value conversations with people I trust and respect and admire—and that’s what keeps me coming back to Health Evolution Summit. Our most precious asset is time, and so we want to spend it in places where that time is spent well. Every year, I think my time at Health Evolution has been spent well.
