Sonder Health Plans is a community-focused, locally based Medicare Advantage plan delivering outstanding member experience and exceptional service to its providers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the Company is led by an experienced group of healthcare professionals. 

 Sonder is committed to exceeding expectations and being the plan of choice for the communities it serves, with the goal of achieving better healthcare outcomes for its members. The Company is innovative in its approach to deliver exceptional service to its members and increased efficiencies to its providers. Sonder differentiates itself through partnering with providers and engaging with them on multiple levels to embrace value-based care and processes that are not offered by competitive health plans in the market. Sonder has identified a significant market opportunity to convert traditional fee-for-service providers to full and/or partial risk capitated providers, which will be fully supported by Sonder throughout the continuum of the transition of such practices. Management has positioned Sonder for year-round growth with its D-SNP and C-CNP products. The Company’s Medicare Advantage Plan infrastructure provides end-to-end transaction visibility, allowing Sonder to improve its member experience and access to services and support.


Market Opportunity

Sonder exclusively provides Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C or MA) plans in the state of Georgia and is solely focused on this market.  Georgia boasts a total market of nearly 1.9 million Medicare beneficiaries as of 2023, with over 53% (over 1 million) already participating in a MA Plan.  The total market of Medicare beneficiaries has grown year over year at around 2%, while the MA market has grown at an average of almost 10% driven by the growing popularity of the program.  On this trajectory, conservatively, the total Medicare population will grow to about 2 million and the MA market to over 1.2 million by the beginning of 2028.

For 2024 Sonder will compete in the 12 Georgia counties representing the metro Atlanta area and over 745,000 Medicare beneficiaries (39.2% of total beneficiaries in the state).  Of those beneficiaries over 420,000 (56.3%) are already participating in MA.



To achieve 2024 membership goals Sonder needs 0.2% of the Atlanta MA market (1,000 members) by January 2024 and 0.6% of the Atlanta MA market (2,500
members) by December 2024.


To expand market opportunity and accelerate growth, in 2025 Sonder will expand its service area to the rest of Georgia.  Market share is projected to grow steadily through the end of 2027 and into the beginning of 2028 when the goal of 25,000 members will be achieved representing 2.1% of the MA market in GA.



Competition

The majority of the current Medicare Advantage Plans in the Georgia market are National Plans. Aetna, United Health Care, Anthem, Cigna, and WellCare. With multiple members of the Sonder Executive team coming from the National players, we have a unique advantage of in-depth knowledge of the national players shortcomings and the impact that has on members.



Market Strategy

Our primary advantage is being the only local market player with an executive team that has over 60 years of Medicare Advantage experience.

We are "Georgians Caring for Georgians", which has marketing cache that works to our benefit.  It also provides impactful customer service advantages.   Every phone call is answered by a person in the Georgia market, who knows the community and speaks with a familiar accent.  To build on this we triple staff our member call center to ensure ample time is committed to each member. We also have the trust and confidence of our Providers in the market because they have access to us, just one phone call away.
Premium Products

Beyond marketing differentiation, being the only local plan gives us a competitive advantage in the Chronic Special Needs Plan (CSNP) space.  Offering CSNPs allows us to provide benefits targeting the chronic conditions prevalent in the population, such as diabetes.  The competitive advantages are:

1.      Chronic Condition Verification - The member's chronic condition must be verified by the provider that diagnosed the member. 

•        The size and national scale of our competitors, with centralized enrollment operations, provider relations and health services located far away from members and providers adds expensive obstacles to implementing a process to obtain verification.

•        Without verification, the member must be disenrolled from the CSNP, so national scale competitors offer very few of these plans.

•         Sonder's operational processes leverage our local presence and relationships for seamless verification.

1.      Premium Products Targeting Chronic Conditions 

•        Tailored benefits meet the unique needs of managing the chronic condition.

•        For Example - Sonder's Diabetes CSNP offers $0 insulin and $0 diabetic supplies

•        Traditional MA and MAPD plans, the primary plans offered by our competitors lack specialized benefits needed by and in demand from people with chronic conditions.
1.      CSNPs - Year Around Enrollment Period 
•        Medicare beneficiaries with qualifying chronic conditions are permitted to enroll in a CSNP at any time during the year.

•        Traditional MA/MAPD plans are only available for enrollment during AEP and OEP.

Innovative Benefit Design

Sonder’s advantage in offering greater value extends beyond CSNPs and into innovative products not targeted to chronic condition management.  Being local and focused on the Georgia market, the community has access to leadership and strategic decision-makers and product design is focused on that feedback.  For example, based on conversations with community stakeholders, for 2024 Sonder’s product/benefit design team created the most innovative MAPD plan ever brought to market.  Sonder’s “Tiers Plan” allows members to target the supplemental benefit dollars to their most important health-wellness needs, even when they do not qualify for a CSNP.

Sonder’s market strategy will allow it to grow membership and revenue rapidly.  To drive profit and positive cash flow from that revenue and cross the lines as quickly as possible Sonder has implemented robust operational and compliance processes for Medicare Risk Adjustment (MRA) coding and health services management.  In addition, in 2025 Sonder’s will be eligible for a STARS rating from CMS, leading to substantial bonus payments for high performance.  Beyond executing on these critical operational drivers, Sonder has significant in 2 key profit drivers:

1.      Value-Based Care Model 

2.     Scalable technology platforms and operational infrastructure

Value-based care (VBC) is core to Sonder’s strategy for improving the health and wellbeing of our members.  VBC focuses on helping patients manage and maintain their health, retaining a high quality of life, even with chronic conditions.  VBC values quality of care over quantity by sharing risk with provider partners.  Provider partners receive substantially more compensation if patients remain healthy.  It is a proven model in markets with mature Medicare Advantage payors.

Sonder has deep expertise in value-based care models.  Only one other payer offers value-based care in Georgia (Humana).  This expertise combined with the local presence, local relationships and premium benefit offerings create a foundation for powerful partnerships with leading primary care physicians and Managed Service Organizations (MSO).  Co-branding, co-advertising and other co-marketing opportunities will showcase the Sonder brand and attract members from the PCP patient base.


Operational Infrastructure – Built for Scale

Sonder Health Plans has invested over one million dollars in new systems and software platforms to support rapid growth. The criteria for selecting new platforms have focused on ease of use for Health Plan Members and Providers while ensuring long term sustainability.  The technology and operations infrastructure includes the following best in class systems for functionality, reliability, and data integration:
Beacon Healthcare Solutions - Enrollment, Appeals & Grievance and Utilization Management

MD Flow - Case Management, Provider Data Management

Genesys - Telecom and Call Center

Mirra/Availity - Claims Processing

Salesforce

Ensure Data Solutions – DwaaS

Sonder’s operational infrastructure is built for scale, supporting the growing membership, but also creating reduced per member per month (PMPM) costs allowing for rapid achievement of profitability.

By bringing premium products to a rapidly growing market, with a strongly differentiated competitive position, Sonder forecasts rapid membership growth.  Added to a scalable operational infrastructure and innovative benefit design, Sonder forecasts growth to 20,000 members by the end of 2027.  Scale is projected to be achieved at 5,000 members in mid-2025, with profit margins continuing to grow through 2027.

 Advertising

•        Advertising and call to action will focus on digital ads.

•        Targeted direct mail.

•        Commercials and other media.

•        Collaboration with engaged provider partners.

Captive Direct Sales Agents

•        12 captive direct sales agents, directed by 2 sales managers. 

•        Recruit, train, connect and coordinate sales channels.

•        Community outreach team to liaise among captive and broker channels and community influencers.

 Broker Sales Strategy

•        12 leading national Field Marketing Organizations (FMO) partners supported by ongoing agent trainings that provide expert education in areas such as marketing to DSNP/CSNP populations targeting a sales mix of 80% broker and 20% from the captive sales channel.

•        Best in class CRM solution to develop sales opportunities and manage marketing campaigns.

Chief Executive Officer:  Suzanna Roberts is a results oriented and innovative managed care leader with over 20 years of managed care experience. She has provided executive operations experience to leading health plan organizations with a focus on operational excellence of government programs in multiple markets. With a Proven track record of building and leading teams she most recently was the President of Anthem Government Programs covering over 230K members with average annual revenue of $5B for all the company brands in the Florida market.  Suzanna also provided executive leadership with United Health Group prior to joining Anthem.  Her ability to facilitate innovation, operational excellence, the recruitment of top talent and the execution of results-oriented strategies will create a comprehensive a value proposition for Medicare Advantage eligible Georgians.
 

Chief Operating Officer, Charles Merritt, is a solution oriented and experienced healthcare operations leader with over 20 years of experience managing various healthcare organizations. He has a proven history of improving overall performance through strategic and operational leadership. Charles served as COO of the largest independent anatomic pathology laboratory in Kentucky, prior to entering the Florida market managing a large specialty group in Tampa.  His ability to build innovative teams and develop talent to execute operational strategies will help create a unique Medicare Advantage experience for eligible Georgians.

Chief Compliance Officer, Amber Dreyer, is a seasoned compliance professional with over 20 years of experience in healthcare, strategic planning, and designing effective compliance programs.  Before joining Sonder, she most recently served as the VP of Compliance Programs & Chief Compliance Officer at Blue Cross NC since 2018, and the Medicare Compliance Officer since 2010. Throughout her career, she has developed nearly all aspects of the program, including audit protocols, issue management, regulatory implementation processes, risk assessments and mitigation strategies, mandatory training, policy management, and corporate governance.  She has cultivated strong relationships with state and federal regulators, including CMS, at the Region IV Office. Amber managed teams that implement, monitor and audit state and federal laws and regulations, while also supporting the annual Medicare bid process and comprehensive reviews of plan operations to facilitate the execution of CMS contracts. Her leadership has led to successful results in major CMS audits, and she has supported CMS service area expansions, applications for new product types, and initiatives to improve performance in star measures.

Controller, Declan Harte, has 18 years of finance and accounting experience working for three publicly traded healthcare companies, DaVita Inc, Centene Corporation, and Clover Health.  ·Before joining Sonder, he most recently served as the Director of Finance at Clover Health, another player in the Medicare Advantage space. He was a key player when the company went public via a SPAC transaction in early 2021.  A certified Public Accountant: Declan has a broad range of experience in corporate finance, Treasury, FP&A, Accounting, SEC and statutory reporting, and Tax.