Case Study: Zing Health achieves rapid Medicare Advantage launch and 99% of claims paid within 30 days with Optum

Meeting the Health Needs of an Underserved Community Through a Medicare Advantage Plan

Zing Health, a physician-founded plan focused on reducing healthcare disparities in Chicago’s underserved communities, needed to rapidly launch a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan for Cook County and enroll members by 2020—compressing a process that typically takes two to three years. To meet this aggressive timeline and navigate complex CMS requirements, Zing Health engaged Optum and its Medicare Advantage Entry Program for consulting and implementation support.

Optum deployed a cross-functional consulting team and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) platform to help submit the CMS application, build a provider network, establish operational infrastructure, and run back-office claims processing. As a result, Zing Health went live in January 2020, met initial membership targets, prioritized member engagement, paid 99% of claims in under 30 days, and expanded plan offerings into Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.

Zing Health

Garfield S. Collins,

COO and co-founder