Healthcare has never offered more technology, innovation, or ways to deliver care. Yet for many people, especially those with the most complex healthcare needs, navigating the healthcare system still feels like a full-time job.
Every unnecessary phone call. Every repeated form. Every delayed approval. Every missed connection between providers. Each one takes time away from what matters most: managing health.
In my work supporting government health programs, I’ve seen how seemingly small moments of friction can add up. They create frustration, delay care, and make an already complex healthcare journey even harder to navigate.
Improving healthcare isn’t just about expanding services. It’s about removing unnecessary complexity. When we make healthcare easier to navigate, we don’t just improve the experience. We give people something even more valuable: time.
Complex Care Requires Simpler Experiences
Some of healthcare’s most important lessons come from caring for people with the most complex needs.
People enrolled in Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs), who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, often manage multiple chronic conditions while navigating care across different providers, benefits, and support systems. According to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 44% of dual eligible beneficiaries report being in fair or poor health, compared with 17% of non-dual eligible Medicare beneficiaries. Additionally, 26% have five or more chronic conditions, compared with 15% of other Medicare beneficiaries.
Behind those numbers are everyday realities.
Consider an older adult recovering from a hospital stay who spends the afternoon arranging transportation to follow-up appointments instead of resting. Or someone managing diabetes who postpones a preventive visit because grocery shopping, prescription pickups, and coordinating multiple specialists compete for limited time and energy.
These moments may seem small, but together they shape whether people can stay engaged in their care.
We have a responsibility to reduce that friction. That means making benefits easier to understand, reducing unnecessary administrative steps, and helping people move through the healthcare system more seamlessly.
Making healthcare easier to navigate requires us to keep simplifying enrollment processes, strengthening care coordination, reducing administrative burden, and helping people understand their benefits before they need them.
The Best Benefits Give People Time Back
One of the most important ways Medicare Advantage has evolved over the past two decades is by recognizing that supporting whole health means addressing more than medical care alone.
Today, 55% of people eligible for Medicare are enrolled in a MA plan, up from 19% in 2007. As MA has evolved, so has its approach to supporting whole health through supplemental benefits. Many plans offer eligible members benefits that may include transportation, post-discharge meals, grocery allowances, telehealth, and dental, vision, and hearing services, depending on the plan and individual eligibility.
These benefits aren’t valuable because they’re “extras.” They’re valuable because they remove barriers that compete for people’s time and attention. Combined with coordinated care and personalized support, they help people spend less time navigating healthcare and more time getting the care they need.
For someone recovering from surgery, having nutritious meals delivered after discharge means less time worrying about grocery shopping and more time focusing on recovery. Reliable transportation can make the difference between making a follow-up appointment and delaying needed care. Grocery allowances, utility support, and home safety items can help people remain healthier and more independent in their homes.
When healthcare supports the realities of everyday life, people have more time and energy to focus on staying healthy.
That’s especially true for people with complex healthcare needs. Across Elevance Health-affiliated Medicare Advantage plans, 75% of non-dual eligible MA members and 83% of dual eligible members used at least one supplemental benefit. Nearly one in four (24%) dual eligible members used four or more supplemental benefits, compared with 14% of other MA members. These findings underscore an important point: when benefits are designed around people’s everyday lives, they’re more likely to be used in ways that support better health.
Time Can Support Better Health
Giving people time back isn’t simply a matter of convenience. It can also help improve health.
Research from the Elevance Health Public Policy Institute examined more than 240,000 members enrolled in affiliated D-SNPs across 20 states, and how food and transportation supplemental benefits relate to healthcare quality. The findings suggest that reducing everyday barriers may help people stay engaged in preventive care and chronic disease management.
Members who used food supplemental benefits had 57% greater odds of completing an annual planned visit than members who did not use those benefits. They also had 45% greater odds of maintaining HbA1c control, 45% greater odds of maintaining blood pressure control, and 94% greater odds of receiving a diabetic eye exam. Transportation benefit use was also associated with 11% greater odds of completing an annual planned visit and 42% greater odds of receiving a diabetic eye exam.
These findings reinforce something healthcare leaders have long understood: improving health isn’t only about what happens during a doctor’s visit. It’s also about helping people overcome the barriers that make it harder to get there in the first place.
The Future of Healthcare Is Less Friction
Healthcare will always be complex, but getting care shouldn’t be.
By reducing unnecessary complexity, improving coordination, and making healthcare easier to navigate, we can give people something every healthcare system should value more: time.
Healthcare succeeds not only when it delivers excellent care, but when it makes that care easier to access, easier to navigate, and easier to fit into people’s lives. For those with the most complex healthcare journeys, giving them time back may be one of the most meaningful benefits we can provide.