SCAN expands.

Long Beach-based SCAN Health Plan, a senior-focused specialty health plan, has significantly expanded its Westside L.A. provider network.

With the addition this month of the UCLA Health System, SCAN members will have access to the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and the 100-physician UCLA Medical Group.

"SCAN's membership in West Los Angeles continues to grow," said Sherry Stanislaw, SCAN's senior vice president of operations. "Likewise, our provider network in the area is also growing."

SCAN earlier announced that it had beefed up its provider network in other parts of Los Angeles County with the addition of Bright Medical Associates, comprised of 23 primary care physicians in Whittier, Norwalk, La Mirada and Hacienda Heights, and Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, which works with many of those doctors. Prior to the new additions, there were 10,862 physicians and 92 hospitals in SCAN's provider network.

SCAN serves 90,000 Medicare-eligible individuals in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties, and this month expanded into San Diego County through a partnership with Scripps Health.

In addition, the plan continued its out-of-state expansion efforts by signing a three-year contract with the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to provide long-term care services in Maricopa County.

The state's fourth largest Medicare Advantage plan, SCAN is known for its "social HMO" model that offers members in-home care services not traditionally covered by Medicare. Its social workers arrange for personal care and in-home care services by outside contractors, such as cooking or light housekeeping, that a frail senior can't perform.