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Medicare

Medicare

HMA conference keynote speaker discusses innovation in Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplaces

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Given that 50 percent of Americans have publicly funded health insurance—including Medicare, Medicaid, or Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans in which many premiums are subsidized—the need is growing for innovations that will yield better quality at lower total cost. The Health Management Associates (HMA) Fall Conference, Unlocking Solutions in Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplace, offers an agenda that dives deeply into the latest innovations and opportunities in these critical programs. Focused on improving collaboration and information sharing, the event will explore strategies and practical solutions to reduce health disparities and enhance outcomes for aging, disabled, and chronically ill people.

The federal government recently created the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-Health), which is charged with supporting the development of high-impact solutions to improve health outcomes. We are fortunate to have as our keynote speaker Dr. Darshak Sanghavi from ARPA-H. We have asked him to share his thoughts on why innovation in the public healthcare space is critical.

Dr. Sanghavi will kick off the HMA conference with a discussion on how ARPA-H initiatives are intended to support new solutions to modernize today’s healthcare landscape—not only with technology, but also through changes in our approaches to healthcare delivery and payment.

Only a month before the November elections, the HMA conference presents a valuable opportunity to engage with healthcare leaders across the public and private sectors to hear how they are thinking about potential policy and regulatory changes that could affect publicly funded programs and supplemental coverage. Attendees will take home insights and actionable ideas to drive improvements in health and well-being. Join us to shape the solutions that will impact the future of healthcare!

FY 2025 Medicare hospital inpatient final rule to affect hospital margins and administrative procedures

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This week, our In Focus section reviews the policy changes that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized on August 1, 2024, in the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Final Rule (CMS-1808-F). This year’s IPPS final rule will impact hospital margins and administrative processes beginning October 1, 2024. 

The remainder of our article delves into five of the key policy changes included in the final rule. 

Key provisions in the FY 2025 Hospital IPPS and LTCH Final Rule 

For FY 2025, CMS will modify several hospital inpatient payment policies. We highlight five of these policies because they will have the most significant impact on Medicare beneficiaries, hospitals and health systems, payors, and manufacturers:  

  1. The annual inpatient market basket update and changes to the standardized payment amount  
  2. New technology add-on payment (NTAP) policy changes 
  3. Implementation of the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) bundled payment model in 2026 
  4. Hospital wage index changes and labor market adjustments 
  5. Severity of illness increase for housing insecurity social determinants of health (SDOH) codes  

Several of these and other policy changes for FY 2025 will become effective October 1, 2024.  

Market basket update 

Final rule: Overall CMS’s Medicare 2025 Hospital IPPS Rule will increase hospital inpatient payments to acute care hospitals by 2.9 percent from 2024 to 2025, an estimated increase of approximately $2.9 billion after other policy changes are included.  

Health Management Associates (HMA) analysis: CMS’s 2.9 percent increase is largely based on an estimate of the rate of increase in the cost of a standard basket of hospital goods—the hospital market basket. For beneficiaries, this payment rate increase will lead to a higher standard Medicare inpatient deductible and increase out-of-pocket costs. The finalized payment increase (2.9 percent) is larger than the increase included in CMS’s IPPS Proposed Rule (2.6 percent) but continues to fall below economy-wide inflation over the past year (3.5 percent).1,2 Importantly, after accounting for the various policy changes made within the final rule (e.g., wage index reclassifications) we anticipate individual cases will experience an average payment increase of 1.7 percent.  

Transforming Episode Accountability Model 

Final rule: CMS finalized the creation of a new mandatory episode-based CMS Innovation Center methodology—TEAM. Under TEAM, selected acute care hospitals will coordinate care for people with traditional Medicare who undergo one of the following surgical procedures: 

  • Lower extremity joint replacement 
  • Surgical hip femur fracture treatment 
  • Spinal fusion 
  • Coronary artery bypass graft 
  • Major bowel procedure 

Hospitals in the model will assume responsibility for the cost and quality of surgical care through the first 30 days after a Medicare beneficiary leaves the hospital. Hospitals also must refer patients to primary care services to support optimal long-term health outcomes. Hospitals will be assigned to different risk tracks to allow a graduated path to ease in to full-risk participation.  

HMA analysis: The mandatory nature of this model requires hospitals in the selected geographic areas to begin to prepare for implementation of the model requirements in 2026. TEAM builds on and combines previous models such as the bundled payment for care improvement (BPCI) and the comprehensive care for joint replacement (CJR) models. Hospitals in roughly 23 percent (188 of 925) of the nation’s core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) are required to participate in this advanced payment model, with some exceptions, such as hospitals in Maryland and Sole Community Hospitals. Participating hospitals will be required to report various quality measures, and payment will be based on spending targets and include retroactive reconciliation. Reimbursement under the model will follow four different tracks, which vary by the level of upside and downside risk that the hospital accepts and with a specific track for safety net hospitals. 

Hospital Wage Index Adjustments and Labor Market Changes  

Final rule: CMS finalized two wage index policies for FY 2025. First, CMS extended the temporary policy finalized in the FY 2020 IPPS/LTCH PPS final rule for three additional years to address wage index disparities affecting low wage index hospitals, which includes many rural hospitals. Second, as required by law, CMS revised the labor market areas used for the wage index based on the most recent CBSA delineations issued by the OMB based on 2020 Census data. 

HMA analysis: The two wage index policy changes for FY 2025 will have important positive and potentially negative consequences on hospital payment. The policy to extend the low wage index policy for three more years will allow many hospitals with low wage indexes to increase their wage index and their payment rates across all Medicare severity diagnosis-related groups (MS-DRGs). 

Specifically, the roughly 800 hospitals with wage indexes below 0.9007 (the 25th percentile across all hospitals) will automatically receive an increase in their wage index and payment rates for all inpatient cases. This policy will bring additional millions of dollars to individual rural hospitals in FY 2025. The second policy is a statutorily required update to the labor markets used to establish CMS’s hospital wage indexes. To implement this policy, CMS will use US Census Bureau data to redefine urban and rural markets. As a result, CMS will redefine 53 urban counties as rural and will newly redefine 42 rural counties containing a hospital as urban. These changes will disrupt various hospital payment policies for hospitals in these counties. The overall impact of both geographic policy changes for FY 2025 will be to increase inpatient payment rates to rural hospitals.  

Revision to Social Determinants of Health Housing Insecurity Diagnosis Coding 

Final rule: CMS finalized a change in the severity designation of the seven ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes that describe inadequate housing and housing instability. Under the final rule, these codes are changing from non-complication or comorbidity (non-CC) to complication or comorbidity (CC) based on the higher average resource costs of cases compared with similar cases without these codes.  

HMA analysis: This new policy will enable hospitals to receive higher inpatient payment rates when they provide care for patients with inadequate housing or housing instability are served. Specifically, this policy change will result in assigning cases involving patients with one of these codes to a higher-level MS-DRG. Hospital staff will want to ask patients about their housing upon admission and discharge to accurately document this critical SDOH characteristic.  

New technology add-on payments 

Final rule: CMS finalized three changes to the NTAP program and approved several products for NTAPs in FY 2025.  

HMA analysis: CMS seems willing to increase NTAP payments in certain limited situations to boost selected policy goals but rejects comments seeking to increase the percentage for sickle cell products or expand the higher payments to other medical conditions. In addition, portions of the final rule indicate that CMS is applying some of the criteria for NTAPs more strictly than in recent years. If this trend continues, it may be more difficult for future new technologies to be approved for NTAPs. 

Connect with Us

HMA’s Medicare Practice Group works to monitor legislative and regulatory developments in the inpatient hospital space and assess the impact of inpatient payment, quality, and policy changes on the hospital sector. We will continue to follow these and other changes happening to hospitals and are available to provide additional detail on these or other policies in the final rule. If you have any questions, please contact our featured experts below.

HMA celebrates 59th anniversary of Medicaid and Medicare

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This week, Health Management Associates (HMA) shifts In Focus from a newsworthy development to commemorate a seminal event in the expansion and strengthening of healthcare access in the United States. On July 30, 1965, Medicaid and Medicare were signed into law under Title XVIII and Title XIX of the Social Security Act. Today we celebrate the 59th anniversary of this pivotal moment in America’s healthcare journey.

Medicaid: A Critical Safety Net that Remains Strong

All states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories have Medicaid programs designed to provide health insurance coverage for low-income individuals. As of March 20241, 82,751,338 people, including eligible low-income adults, children, pregnant women, older adults, and people with disabilities are covered under their state’s Medicaid program in accordance with federal requirements. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored just how important this safety net program is for American families, as it continued to deliver vital services during unprecedented times.

Beyond its traditional role, Medicaid also drives significant innovations in care for people with complex conditions and challenges. States have implemented various programs and initiatives to improve healthcare quality and outcomes. These include:

  • Managed Care Expansion: Many states have expanded Medicaid managed care programs to enhance care coordination and improve health outcomes.
  • Value-Based Care Models: Innovations in value-based care are being tested, aiming to link reimbursement to quality of care and patient outcomes rather than volume of services.
  • Integration of Behavioral Health: Several states are integrating behavioral health services into Medicaid to address mental health and substance use disorders more effectively.
  • Telehealth: The pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth services in Medicaid, expanding access to care and reducing barriers for patients.

Medicare: Leading in Innovation and Coverage

Medicare provides coverage to more than 60 million seniors and people with disabilities. In addition to being a lifeline for so many Americans, Medicare is a force for innovation in health policy, piloting changes to payment and care delivery through the Innovation Center and through Medicare Advantage plan design. Key innovations include:

  • Alternative Payment Models: The Innovation Center has been at the center of piloting various alternative payment models to improve quality and reduce costs.
  • Medicare Advantage Enhancements: Medicare Advantage plans continue to evolve, offering more comprehensive benefits that include mental health and substance use disorder services and integrating additional services such as dental, vision, and wellness programs.
  • Chronic Care Management: Medicare is expanding its focus on chronic care management, providing additional resources and support for individuals with chronic conditions.

HMA’s Commitment to Medicaid and Medicare

Since HMA’s founding, our experts have helped states, plans, providers, and other stakeholders deliver the full spectrum of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) services. As HMA has evolved, we have built a leading-edge Medicare team that includes former agency officials, plan leaders, policy and data analysts, and actuaries. Healthcare plans, providers, and innovators call upon our colleagues to anticipate policy and regulatory change, develop and support Medicare Advantage business, transform fee-for-service programs, and support access to new technologies and treatments that can both improve quality patient outcomes and reduce costs of care.

Our growing team of includes 10 former state Medicaid directors and many more former state agency leaders, hospital and health plan executives, senior officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and public health leaders.

HMA Colleagues Who Are Former Medicaid Directors Looking Ahead

Headshot of Kathy Gifford

Kathy Gifford

Principal

Headshot of Farah Hanley

Farah Hanley

Managing Principal

Headshot of Beth Kidder

Beth Kidder

Managing Principal

Headshot of Chuck Milligan

Chuck Milligan

Chief Executive Officer

Headshot of Matt Powers

Matt Powers

Managing Director

Headshot of Bill Snyder

Bill Snyder

Principal

Headshot of Patrick Tigue

Patrick Tigue

Senior Vice President, Practice Groups

Anya Wallack

Principal

HMA’s Top Medicare Experts

Headshot of Amy Bassano

Amy Bassano

Managing Director, Medicare

Headshot of Julie Faulhaber

Julie Faulhaber

Managing Director, Medicare and Dual Eligibles

Headshot of Holly Michaels Fisher

Holly Michaels Fisher

Vice President, Managed Care

Headshot of Zach Gaumer

Zach Gaumer

Managing Principal

Headshot of Kevin Kirby

Kevin Kirby

Senior Advisor

Headshot of Rachel Kramer

Rachel Kramer

Managing Director

Headshot of Tim Murray

Tim Murray

Principal

Headshot of Wendy Radunz

Wendy Radunz

Chief Executive Officer

Headshot of Kelsey Stevens - Wakely

Kelsey Stevens

Chief Executive Officer

Looking Ahead

As Medicaid and Medicare near their seventh decade, the programs will continue to evolve and change to better support covered individuals and meet the demands of policymakers and taxpayers. HMA experts are committed in service of this important mission, and we are excited about building their future together with our clients to create more innovative, high-quality care that improves health outcomes for all.

  1. April 2024 Medicaid & CHIP Enrollment Data Highlights | Medicaid ↩︎

CMS invites states to apply for transforming maternal health model

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This week, our In Focus section reviews the notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicaid and Medicare Innovation (the Innovation Center) announced on December 15, 2023. States interested in participating in this model must submit an application to CMS during the competitive application process.  

As described in a December 2023 In Focus, pregnancy-related deaths have more than doubled since 1987 to 17.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, with health disparities only worsening outcomes for different racial and ethnic groups. For example, the pregnancy-related mortality rates for Black and Native American and Alaska Native people are approximately two to three times higher than the rate for White people. In recent years, 38 states have extended postpartum coverage, and 11 states now offer doula coverage for Medicaid enrollees. This initiative accelerates the focus on maternal outcomes and, with Medicaid paying for nearly 43 percent of births, has the potential to affect health across generations. 

This model is designed exclusively to improve maternal healthcare for people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The TMaH model takes a whole-person approach to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care, addressing the physical, mental health, and social needs people experience during pregnancy. 

Model Overview 

Up to 15 participating state Medicaid agencies (SMAs) will receive as much as $17 million over the 10-year period to develop a value-based alternative payment model for maternity care services, with the intention of improving quality and health outcomes and promoting the long-term sustainability of services. TMaH will focus on three pillars: 

  • Access to care, infrastructure, and workforce capacity 
  • Quality improvement and safety 
  • Whole-person care delivery  

The TMaH model is designed to support birthing persons along their care journey, expanding continuity, and improving outcomes. 

During the model’s first three years, states will receive targeted technical assistance to achieve pre-implementation milestones. The table below highlights the key activities in the pre-implementation phase. 

Following pre-implementation, participants will enter a seven-year implementation period during which the SMAs will implement the program with partners, such as managed care organizations (MCOs), perinatal quality collaboratives, hospitals, birth centers, health centers and rural health clinics, maternity care providers, and community-based organizations. 

In year four, states will offer partnering providers and care delivery sites upside-only performance payments from state funds (no cooperative funds may be used). In year five, states will transition partner provider and partner care delivery locations to a new value-based payment model. CMS will lead the development of the value-based model, and it will be finalized during the pre-implementation period. 

The model also requires a health equity plan, which has been a consistent requirement across models from the Innovation Center. Awardees must develop a plan that addresses disparities among underserved populations, such as racial and ethnic groups and people living in rural areas, who are at higher risk for poor maternal outcomes. 

State Medicaid Agency Requirements 

For states considering TMaH, the NOFO outlines the requirements for participating SMAs, which include: 

  • States must include CHIP if pregnant people receive services through CHIP 
  • States that have managed care plans must contract with at least MCO for implementation 
  • Collaborate with partner providers (e.g., OBs, midwives, doulas), care delivery location (e.g., hospitals, birth centers, federally qualified health centers), and partner organizations 
  • Collaborate in the process to create cost and quality benchmarks with CMS 
  • Be actively involved in technical assistance activities, including attending regularly scheduled calls, providing input and working on portions of documents as appropriate 
  • Execute the data-sharing agreements necessary to support the exchange of data and information related to the TA activities and completion of milestones 
  • Provide CMS and contractors the necessary information and data to support the development of documents to help reach milestones 
  • States must demonstrate their ability to meet these requirements as part of the NOFO process, and CMS will evaluate their responses as part of the selection process 

TMaH Opportunities and Considerations 

The model offers states resources and technical assistance to develop value-based alternative payment models to support whole-person pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care and improved outcomes. Many SMAs already are working on programs to innovate care and payment, and the TMaH is an opportunity to expand and accelerate those programs. 

The model offers an opportunity for states that have yet to expand postpartum coverage or added doula benefits to adopt these policies with the funding and technical assistance they may need to support their efforts. 

SMAs interested in this opportunity should evaluate their application readiness and pre-plan for the application. 

What’s Next? 

States interested in TMaH should submit a letter of intent by August 8, 2024. Applications are due by September 20, 2024, and the model is expected to start January 2025. 

The Health Management Associates team will continue to evaluate the TMaH model as more information becomes available. For more information, contact our featured experts below.

Zeroing in on Medicare Advantage policies set to transform the SNP landscape beginning in 2025

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Regulatory policy changes finalized by CMS aim to increase the percentage of dual-eligible individuals enrolled in integrated plans 

This week, our In Focus section delves into important and complex regulatory policy changes that affect coverage and services for the 12.9 million individuals who are dually enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. These policy changes—which were finalized as part of a broader final rule that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released on April 4, 2023—are designed to increase the percentage of dually eligible people who are enrolled in integrated Medicare Advantage (MA) Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs). The modifications will be phased in gradually, with certain provisions affecting D-SNPs starting in 2025. These adjustments forge a stronger connection between state-level policy and operational decisions, shaping the future landscape of D-SNPs. 

Overview 

Amid rapid growth of D-SNP plan offerings and increased enrollment of dually eligible individuals into D-SNPs, CMS has finalized an interconnected set of regulatory policy changes to increase enrollment in integrated plans while simplifying coverage and plan options for this population.   

By promoting enrollment in integrated plans, CMS seeks to improve the care experience and outcomes for dually eligible individuals, with the ultimate goal of making integrated plan enrollment the standard. Integrated D-SNP plans, which consolidate Medicare and Medicaid services under one managed care organization, offer uniform consumer protections (including unified grievance and appeals process), integrated plan materials, and more coordinated care. 

Key policy changes include:  

  • Replacing the current quarterly special enrollment period (SEP) with a monthly SEP for dually eligible and other low-income subsidy (LIS) individuals to enroll into a standalone prescription drug plan (PDP) 
  • Establishing a new integrated care SEP that will enable dually eligible individuals to choose an integrated D-SNP plan on a monthly basis 
  • Restricting enrollment in certain D-SNPs to individuals also enrolled in an affiliated Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) 
  • Limiting the number of D-SNPs an MA organization can offer in the same service area as an affiliated Medicaid MCO to reduce and simplify plan offerings for dually eligible individuals. 

What Issue is CMS Trying to Solve? 

CMS intends to make it easier for dually eligible people make enrollment decisions. Simplified plan options and more integrated care could prevent beneficiaries from inadvertently selecting plans that fail to provide the comprehensive Medicare and Medicaid benefits they need. 

This shift toward aligned enrollment could improve beneficiary experiences, enhance outcomes, and streamline administrative processes for CMS. The introduction of a monthly SEP specifically for dually eligible individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed care plans underscores CMS’s commitment to facilitating enrollment in affiliated D-SNP plans throughout the year. Health Management Associates (HMA) experts expect these changes to affect the sales cycle for dual eligibles and potentially increase member satisfaction, expand access to care, and improve overall health outcomes for this population. 

Timeline of Regulatory Changes 

Considerations for Health Plans  

The impact on individual health plans hinges on state-specific approaches to dually eligible beneficiaries and D-SNPs, as well as each plan’s strategy for integrating Medicare and Medicaid services.  HMA experts identified the following key factors as essential for understanding and monitoring these interconnected dynamics:  

  • Does the state administer managed Medicaid, and if so, does it include the dually eligible population? 
  • Does the Medicare D-SNP (or an affiliated/ related company) hold a state Medicaid contract that covers dually eligible individuals?  
  • What is the state’s vision regarding duals and D-SNPs? 
  • Does the state require its Medicaid contractors to offer a D-SNP? 
  • Does the state currently or plan to restrict D-SNPs to their Medicaid contractors? 
  • Is the state moving toward an exclusively aligned enrollment model? 

What’s Next  

The changes in D-SNPs present opportunities and risks for beneficiaries, MA and Medicaid health plans, and states. Successful navigation of these changes requires proactive planning and anticipation of forthcoming federal and state regulations. Health plans operating within the D-SNP space must actively engage with state Medicaid agencies to understand and potentially help shape this evolving environment. For example, health plan strategies may include: 

  • Understanding the state’s priorities and its current and planned approach to integrated care for dually eligible individuals 
  • Participating in and/or advocating for stakeholder meetings with the state regarding dually eligible members and D-SNPs to ensure the opportunity to shape regulations 
  • Developing internal integration strategies that align product design, operations, quality, clinical, and member experience capabilities for D-SNPs and Medicaid 
  • Strategically planning actions, such as participating in Medicaid procurements, to achieve the plan’s objectives 

Connect with Us  

These regulatory changes significantly affect dually eligible beneficiaries, states, and both Medicare and Medicaid health plans. Though some changes may disrupt the duals’ market, others align state objectives with plan strategies. Ultimately, dually eligible individuals with full benefits will gain the most, experiencing improved opportunities to choose suitable plans, access necessary care, and achieve optimal health outcomes and well-being.  

For further insights into these upcoming changes, view the D-SNP Growth and Integration: Key Implications of the 2025 CMS Final Rule webinar, featuring our experts below. Join them and other experts at HMA’s Fall Conference to stay informed about the strategic directions plans and states are pursuing.

Unlocking Solutions in the Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplace programs

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HMA is hosting its 2024 Fall Conference October 7−9 in Chicago, IL. Unlocking Solutions in Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplace Programs promises to enhance your ability to navigate and shape healthcare programs and systems, focusing on improving health and well-being. 

In a landscape dominated by endless video meetings, the HMA Fall Conference offers a refreshing change. Join us for an enriching experience featuring: 

  • Engagement with healthcare experts and thought leaders who are actively collaborating with stakeholders 
  • Participation in face-to-face discussions to exchange ideas and receive valuable feedback 
  • Opportunities to connect with peers who are committed to strengthening public programs and enhancing health outcomes 

Keynote Address and Sessions 

Darshak Sanghavi, MD, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), will deliver the Keynote Address. He and other speakers will inspire attendees to explore innovative healthcare programs and their potential impacts on healthcare delivery, reimbursement, and health outcomes. 

The conference will feature a diverse array of speakers and participants, including C-suite executives from national, regional, and local health plans. Federal and state leaders joining panels will include: 

  • State Medicaid directors from New York, Iowa, New Mexico and Alabama  
  • State insurance commissioners  
  • Behavioral health agency officials 
  • State housing agencies 
  • Leaders from the US Interagency Council on Homelessness  

The conference will include a revamped pre-conference workshop on October 7, featuring hands-on exercises and interactive sessions led by HMA leaders. Sessions will include a value-based care contracting exercise, a value-based purchasing assessment discussion for providers, tips and tricks on navigating Medicaid section 1115 demonstrations, AI applications in healthcare, and more. 

View the agenda and event details, including speakers confirmed to date.

Registration 

Early bird registration is open until July 31. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain actionable knowledge, forge valuable connections, and discover fresh insights and best practices. Register now to secure your spot at the forefront of healthcare innovation. 

HMA’s Medicare team unites consultants from multiple HMA companies to assist clients in all aspects of Medicare

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As HMA has grown, we have added significant breadth and depth to our Medicare team to better offer our clients comprehensive expertise on Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Dual-Eligibles, payment systems, pricing, and more. When looking for a partner to help navigate the complexities and changes of Medicare, our clients know that by engaging HMA experts they are engaging former CMS officials, former plan executives, payment system and coding experts, policy analysts, and many others. We draw on the resources of experts from our HMA companies to provide comprehensive and end-to-end solutions, including Wakely Consulting Group and Cirdan Health Systems and Consulting for actuarial services, and Leavitt Partners for political and policy engagement. Together we bring considerable expertise in all things Medicare and can leverage our more than 700 consulting colleagues across HMA.

Our world-class Medicare team partners with clients to meet their needs, address their challenges and improve their bottom line. We provide a variety of services such as:

  • Significant support for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and stakeholders seeking to understand MA policy and operational issues including strategy, market assessment, models of care, evaluation, and audit support.
  • Support MA special needs plans (D-SNP, I-SNP, C-SNP, etc.) and programs for dual eligible beneficiaries.
  • Medicare regulatory, analytics and thought leadership consulting services for MA plans, providers, suppliers, value-based organizations, associations, and foundations.
  • Design, implementation, evaluation and analysis of Medicare value-based payment systems and policy issues.
  • Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) strategy and operations.
  • Strategic advice, policy development, and budgetary analysis for clients seeking assistance with Medicare reform efforts.
  • Medicare coverage and reimbursement for device, drug and biotechnology manufacturers and other stakeholders in the life sciences community.
  • Assistance for clients seeking to commercialize new technologies.
  • MA and fee-for-service claims analysis and actuarial services with support from actuaries within HMA plus actuaries from Wakely Consulting Group and Cirdan Health Systems and Consulting.
  • Consulting and federal policy analysis, including Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring and legislative policy development with our colleagues from Leavitt Partners.

In 2021, HMA acquired The Moran Company (TMC), which provides extensive expertise in the design, implementation, and evaluation of various healthcare payment systems, with a particular focus on the Medicare program. As we approach the 26th anniversary of TMC’s founding and the third anniversary of joining the HMA portfolio, we want to honor the history and contributions of The Moran Company and remember the late Donald Moran who founded TMC in July 1998. He spent almost 50 years in the health policy community, including many years in government service, serving as executive associate director for Budget and Legislation at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget during the Reagan Administration.

Many of our TMC colleagues worked with Moran for more than a decade, benefiting from his mentoring and exhaustive knowledge of the industry. Since joining, TMC consultants have worked closely with our HMA colleagues and the Medicare team in particular.

As of July 1, we are retiring the Moran brand and logo and fully integrating the company into HMA as part of the Medicare team. We may be dropping the Moran brand name, but not the approach and diligence for which TMC is well known. In particular, HMA will continue to use the same methodologies for Congressional Budget Office scores and Medicare data analyses that have characterized Moran’s work for more than 25 years.

View some of our recent work from our combined team:

Case Studies

Reports

Webinar

Learn more about HMA’s MEdicare Capabilities

The Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals Toolkit: Raising Rural Voices

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Download the Toolkit

A public health crisis is growing more acute in rural America, disproportionately impacting individuals with both Medicaid and Medicare (the “dually eligible”). Dually eligible individuals residing in rural areas represent about 5 percent of all rural residents. They reside at the intersection of a public health crisis and a fragmented Medicaid and Medicare care delivery system. As HMA wrote in Health Affairs, this small population is at risk of falling through the cracks of this crisis and suffering a steep rural mortality penalty.

With support from Arnold Ventures, HMA prepared “The Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals (HEARD) Toolkit: Raising Rural Voices from New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to Create Action. The toolkit contains eight actionable solutions for federal and state policymakers to use and tailor to states’ needs. Ellen Breslin, Samantha Di Paola, and Susan McGeehan authored the toolkit, with research contributions from Rebecca Kellenberg and Andrea Maresca.

HMA toolkit and webinar to advance health equity & access for rural dually eligible individuals

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In 2022, HMA convened stakeholder roundtables in three states – including New Mexico, North Dakota, and Tennessee to identify the challenges facing dually eligible individuals living in rural areas and to propose solutions to these challenges. Informed by this process, HMA developed the Health Equity & Access for Rural Dually Eligible Individuals (HEARD) Toolkit.

The toolkit is structured around three domains used to organize eight solutions. For each solution, HMA provides a description of the rural access challenge, the proposed solution, and the proposed tool. Each tool is powered by some type of lever available to the federal and state government. We anticipate that policymakers will build upon this toolkit through continued dialogue with rural communities. The toolkit’s framework, goals, and actionable solutions are summarized in the figure below.

HEARD Toolkit framework domains

HMA Principal Ellen Breslin, Consultant Samantha Di Paola, and Senior Consultant Susan McGeehan authored the toolkit, with research contributions from HMA Principals Rebecca Kellenberg and Andrea Maresca. Download the toolkit.

On February 2, 2023, HMA will hosted a webinar on the HEARD toolkit. During this webinar, HMA experts and panelists including Dr. Kevin Bennett (USC-SOM Columbia, SC CRPH), Dennis Heaphy (DPC), Pam Parker (SNP Alliance), and Tallie Tolen (New Mexico Medicaid) will summarized and discussed the toolkit’s actionable solutions for improving rural dually eligible individuals’ health and social outcomes.

Advancing health equity and care for rural dual eligibles

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This week, our In Focus section highlights the Health Affairs article, Advancing Health Equity and Integrated Care for Rural Dual Eligibles, authored by Ellen Breslin, Samantha Di Paola, Susan McGeehan, Rebecca Kellenberg, and Andrea Maresca, Health Management Associates.

A public health crisis is growing more acute in rural America, disproportionately impacting individuals with both Medicaid and Medicare (the “dually eligible”). The rural health crisis is a health equity concern that affects all rural residents, including dually eligible individuals. There are 47 to 60 million people residing in rural areas. Twenty-one percent of dually eligible individuals live in rural areas—that’s about 2.6 million people. Based on these numbers, the authors calculate that the dual eligible population residing in rural communities accounts for about 5 percent of the total rural population. Dually eligible individuals living in rural areas are at risk of falling through the cracks.

Dually eligible individuals lack access to adequate medical, behavioral health, home-and community-based services (HCBS) and other social services; those living in rural areas face even steeper challenges. Since dually eligible individuals are among the poorest of all individuals covered under Medicare, they are at significant risk of paying a steep rural mortality penalty.

With these challenges there are opportunities for innovation for the dually eligible population living in rural communities. The US can reverse the mortality-disparity rate trajectory. Public and private entities are interested in revitalizing rural America, confronting the rural health crisis, and harnessing the power of rural communities. Investment in the rural health care sector is essential given it is a major economic driver of rural communities.

HMA is creating a toolkit with actionable solutions to improve access to services and integrated care and health equity for individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid who live in rural areas across the country. ​This project is a follow-on project to a previous HMA project supported by Arnold Ventures. ​In 2021, HMA prepared a brief, Medicare-Medicaid Integration: Essential Elements for Integrated Care Programs for Dually Eligible Individuals, to increase and promote enrollment in integrated care programs (ICPs) meeting dually eligible individuals’ needs and preferences. Interviewees including dually eligible individuals helped HMA to identify “access to needed services in rural areas” as an essential element of ICPs. In response, HMA started a new project to create a toolkit with actionable strategies to improve access to needed services and improve integrated care opportunities, specific to dually eligible rural residents’ needs.

HMA designed the toolkit around four values: 1) rural health equity is an imperative for dually eligible individuals, 2) actionable solutions and innovations must come from the community, 3) there is no single pathway to integration, and 4) Medicare and Medicaid flexibilities are critical to inspiring innovations to advance health equity, access, and integration. The toolkit will provide actionable solutions for states with and without integrated care programs for dually eligible individuals to increase access to needed supports and services, care coordination, and integrated care programs. We expect that states and rural communities will use the toolkit as a foundation for mapping a holistic plan to advance access to care coordination and integrated programs for dually eligible individuals residing in rural communities. Other states may employ contractual tools listed in the toolkit to expand access to providers and new services; strengthen partnerships among entities serving the community such as community-based organizations, providers, and health plans; and increase community-wide accountability for meeting dually eligible individuals’ whole person-centered needs. The toolkit is scheduled for an early 2023 release.

READ THE HEALTH AFFAIRS ARTICLE
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