Care Improvement Plus, a Medicare Advantage plan that specializes in covering beneficiaries with chronic health conditions, has begun offering its services in select counties in Iowa.

The health plan, which is owned and operated by Baltimore, Md.-based XLHealth Corp., began 12 years ago and in 2012 will expand its territory from six states to 12, including Iowa. Care Improvement Plus bills itself as the nation’s largest plan for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions or special needs, specifically those with heart failure or diabetes.

“We are growing in hard times, and that’s because there is such a need for a chronic conditions/special needs plan organization that knows how to take care of the sickest of the sick,” said Vicki Ambrosius, community relations manager for Iowa.

Of Iowa’s 519,000 Medicare beneficiaries, approximately one-third have one or both of those conditions, Ambrosius said. Care Improvement Plus will initially serve five counties: Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Polk and Pottawattamie, which were chosen because they have the highest concentration of residents with these two chronic conditions.

In the states it already serves, the average Care Improvement Plus member takes between 11 and 14 medications per day. By reviewing members’ prescriptions, the plan can help verify that they’re taking the right medications and identify potential harmful drug interactions, Ambrosius said.

In each state it serves, XLHealth employs an average of 43 full- or part-time nurse practitioners who make house calls.

XLHealth does not have any immediate plans for a bricks-and-mortar presence in Iowa, said Ambrosius, who will serve the Iowa market from Green Bay, Wis. However, “I’m here on a very regular basis, meeting with individuals at community centers and senior centers and conducting lunch-and-learn events,” she said.

XLHealth Corp. will soon become part of UnitedHealth Group Inc. The $2 billion purchase, announced in November, is expected to close in the first half of 2012.