Ferritic stainless steels are important candidate materials for interconnects in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stacks. SOFC interconnects physically separate the fuel in the anode chamber from the oxidant in the cathode chamber, and also provide cell to cell series electrical connection in cell stacks.. In recent years, progress in materials and fabrication techniques have allowed for a reduction in SOFC operating temperatures to a range (e.g., 650-850ºC) where high temperature oxidation resistant alloys can be considered as replacement materials for the traditional ceramic interconnect materials used in high temperature (900-1,000ºC) SOFC stacks. Compared to doped lanthanum chromites, the high temperature oxidation resistant alloys can offer advantages such as improved manufacturability, higher thermal conductivity, and lower cost. However, the SOFC environment is very challenging for ferritic stainless steels, so, to extend interconnect lifetime, reduce electrical losses, and minimize Cr volatility, cathode-side protective coatings are highly desirable. In particular, previous work at PNNL has demonstrated the effectiveness of Mn1.5Co1.5O4 coatings in reducing alloy oxidation kinetics and Cr volatility. Recent work at PNNL has focused on application of the spinel layers onto 441 ferritic stainless steel (441). The 441 alloy offers the significant advantage of being less expensive than other candidate alloys such as Crofer22APU. However, 441 does not contain any reactive (oxygen active) elements to improve the adhesion of the oxide scale which forms at elevated temperatures. (Addition of reactive elements increases alloy cost, and is therefore to be avoided if possible). As a result, spallation or delamination is likely to occur at the scale/alloy interface. To avoid this problem, we have developed a modification of the spinel coating material which achieves improved scale adhesion for alloys which do not contain reactive elements. In particular, the Mn1.5Co1.5O4 composition is doped with rare earth element(s) such as Ce. The presence of the reactive elements in the protection layer was found to alter the scale growth behavior, resulting in improved adhesion and reduced scale growth, while minimizing the interconnect electrical resistance. The conceived approach can be extended to other metallic interconnects and conductive oxide coatings.