The health plan added 14,000 new members for 2025, more than tripling its enrollment, according to a Jan. 30 news release. The company offers Medicare Advantage plans in 84 Georgia counties.
CEO Suzanna Roberts has led the health plan since 2022. She told Becker’s the plan is rapidly expanding its customer service staff to keep up with increasing enrollment. The company has added another 2,000 members since Jan. 1.
Question: You added 14,000 new members during open enrollment. What’s behind this growth?
Suzanna Roberts: I would attribute that to the fact that we’re a local Medicare Advantage plan. Our goal is to make sure that we eliminate any kind of barriers to healthcare. Our top priority is customer service. Our customer service team is one of the best out there, and I’ve worked for quite a few Medicare Advantage companies. When we engage with our members, when we engage with our provider network, even our brokers, it’s a local field. They know they can call me — I’ve had members call me directly. We make sure that we make healthcare simple, and we make sure that we are respecting our membership as you would your mother, father, grandmother or grandfather.
That’s coupled with our products and our plan. I’m very proud of the products and the plans that we’ve put into the market. We spend 12 months planning for the next year, and part of our plan design is to use member advisory committees. I go to them myself, when I can. We use that opportunity to ask our members: What is it that you need that will help you achieve your best healthcare? I wish I could take all the credit for designing the plans, but we get the feedback from our members directly.
That’s been one of the key things — eliciting the feedback of our members, of our provider network. We meet with local organizations, like the Veterans Coalition, and ask what can we do to make a better plan. What is it that Georgians need? That’s really been the key to our success, between our customer service model, our mission to make healthcare simple and putting out creative plans that truly address the needs of Georgians. Our focus is Georgia only. If you’re going to call customer service, you’ll speak to someone who sits right outside my office.
Q: How do you maintain that personal approach with thousands more members?
SR: It’s not easy. My motto has always been that my call center will be triple-staffed. I’ve worked at many other organizations, and one of the things that has always puzzled me is: Why would we push to get off the phone in 8 to 10 minutes? Most of our members are over the age of 65. By the time you do the verification, you’ve already spent 6 to 7 minutes. I encourage the call center folks to spend whatever time they need. We have phone calls that go 45 minutes. Sometimes we’ve resolved the problem, but the member wants to have a conversation about their grandkids. We have members who call and ask for a specific person, and they’ll wait until they pick up the phone because they’ve formed a relationship.
With the growth we’ve had, we’ve expanded the call center four-fold over the past month. That is part of my mission. It is something we will absolutely continue to invest in, because it’s one of the most important things to be able to have — someone who actually cares and listens to you, versus someone who is just trying to resolve a problem.
Q: Do you see Sonder growing outside of the Georgia market?
SR: Right now, there’s so much opportunity for us in Georgia. I don’t see us expanding in the near future. I would love to make sure we master and take care of Georgia before we think about expansion. Not that it will never happen, but it’s not in the near future.
