SCAN Health Plan Arizona Offers Five Tips

to Help Business Leaders Accommodate Aging Customers

(PHOENIX – May 18, 2011) — By the end of May, which is Older Americans Month, 310,000 more U.S. residents will turn age 65. The majority of today’s seniors are active, and many are still working and a robust group of consumers. In honor of Older Americans Month, SCAN Health Plan Arizona offers business leaders five tips to ensure that they are effectively meeting the needs of this population:

1. Review the paradigm. Everyone within the organization must shift the perception of seniors from “old and sedentary” to seasoned, intelligent and vital.
2. Enhance staff’s senior sensitivity. Anyone who interacts with customers should understand the challenges of aging and company wide should seek ways to improve interactions with seniors. As people age they may face a decline in vision, hearing and the ability to stand for long periods of time.
3. Increase seniors’ comfort. Business design plays an important role in the ability to attract and retain older customers. Modifications such as easy-to-read signage and convenient seating can go a long way toward accommodating older customers.
4. Think beyond the senior. Many seniors welcome programs that engage their friends or family. Often they appreciate knowing that those closest to them are kept “in the loop.”
5. Know what appeals to seniors. There are clearly generational differences when it comes to preferences, priorities and marketing messages. Valuable insight and research in this area can be found online.

“As a Medicare Advantage plan focused exclusively on seniors and a fellow business leader in Arizona, SCAN Health Plan encourages all businesses to evaluate their current programs, services and outreach efforts to ensure that the needs of this critical segment of the population are considered,” said Elizabeth Russell, CEO of SCAN Health Plan Arizona.

About SCAN Health Plan
For more than 30 years, SCAN Health Plan has been focusing on the unique needs of people with Medicare and today is the fourth-largest nonprofit Medicare Advantage plan in the United States. SCAN serves nearly 130,000 members in Arizona and California. SCAN Health Plan Arizona has been selected as one of the area’s “Best Places to Work” by the Phoenix Business Journal for the past two years, one of Arizona’s Most Admired Companies by Arizona Business Magazine, and one of the nation’s top 30 “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine. Further information may be obtained at http://www.scanhealthplan.com.

Members of the news media may contact:
Carol Stevenson
818-597-8453, ext. 3
carols@kevinross.net.