MA startup Alignment Healthcare aims to double its footprint in 2020 

California-based Alignment Healthcare, an artificial-intelligence-driven Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, is aiming to double its geographic footprint in 2020. 

Pending regulatory approval, the company will expand its reach from eight to 16 California counties and from 10 health maintenance organization (HMO) products to 22 HMO and preferred provider organization (PPO) plans, Alignment announced Tuesday. 

The startup health plan launched in 2013 and has earned more than $240 million in investment across two funding rounds. 

The 2020 growth will allow the plan to reach 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries in California, Dawn Maroney, consumer president at Alignment, told FierceHealthcare. Currently, Alignment is home to 50,000 members in its MA plans. 

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It also partners with health plans in North Carolina and Florida as a third-party resource. 

The health plan’s goal, Maroney said, is to harness its technology platform to be more “proactive” in care for seniors while also uniting clinicians and stakeholders from across a patient’s care journey. 

“As they age and utilize more care, the team starts to become bigger and broader,” Maroney said. 

Alignment supports its members using a “centralized command center” that’s powered by AI, which the company calls Alignment Virtual Application, or AVA. The platform houses unique data on members that can identify their needs in real time. 

To date, thanks to the AVA platform, Alignment has posted 30% lower admission rates when compared to traditional Medicare for some of the regions it serves and a readmission rate that’s under 12%. 

RELATED: 4 in 10 Medicare beneficiaries expected to be on Medicare Advantage plans by 2028 

Alignment also announced partnerships with Sutter Health, a 24-hospital health system in the northern part of the state, and Brown & Toland Physicians, a network of more than 2,700 based in the Bay Area, with the goal of reaching more seniors. 

The growing MA population has attracted interest from other startup health plans like Alignment. Oscar Health is planning to launch its first MA plans for New York and Houston in 2020, for example. 

Clover Health, an MA startup that earned big-name backing, has also continued to expand its reach, including into six new markets for 2019