Pennsylvania insurer partners with tango to grow home health access for MA members
By JOHN ROSZKOWSKI | January 9, 2026
Independence Blue Cross has joined forces with a post-acute management services company to improve access to home health services for more than 118,000 Medicare Advantage (MA) members in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania-based insurer announced Tuesday it is partnering with tango, a leader in post-acute benefit enablement services, to manage post-acute care for MA members, particularly home-based care, with the goal of improving patient outcomes, improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions.
In the Independence Blue Cross service area, which covers Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania, tango has relationships with over 300 home health agencies, with more than two-third of those agencies in a value-based relationship with the company, according to Brian Lobley, CEO of tango. He said the company works to facilitate speedy referrals for home health care to these agency partners once patients are discharged from hospitals.
“We are really prioritizing on getting patients home as soon as possible,” he told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “We think that’s the best place for them to recover.”
In addition to partnerships with health insurers in Pennsylvania, tango also has partnerships with other health insurers and home health agencies in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, serving approximately 950,000 MA members in those four states. It also partners with WellSky to provide comprehensive post-acute care solutions to approximately 185,000 members in Ohio, Texas and Oregon, and hopes to extend its reach into Michigan and Tennessee over the next few months.
From a home health care perspective, some of the benefits of partnering with tango include faster referrals to skilled home health providers, which leads to fewer delays, lower readmission rates, improved care, enhanced patient satisfaction and potential cost savings, according to Lobley.
Ensuring a smooth transition from the hospital to a home-based environment is critical to patient safety and reduces costly hospital readmissions, which cost about $18,000 each, he noted. “If we’re able to avoid that, it’s a pretty significant savings,” he said.
The partnership between tango and Independence Blue Cross began in May, and initial findings from the collaboration have been positive.
“We have a 97% patient satisfaction rate, and of our qualified referrals, we have placed 100% of those with a home health agency within two days of receiving a referral,” Lobley said.
Richard Snyder, MD, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Independence Blue Cross, said “healing at home is a proven way to help patients feel better physically and maintain a better quality of life.”
“Home is where our members want to recover, and we’re committed to making that transition as seamless as possible,” he said in a statement about the partnership. “Not only because it’s their preference, but because time and again, it has shown to lead to better outcomes — even compared to the most advanced hospital settings.”