Amy Bassano, former deputy director for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has joined national healthcare consulting firm Health Management Associates (HMA), taking the helm as a managing director of Medicare services.
Medicare
Key takeaways from CMS Innovation Center strategy refresh
This week, our In Focus section shares HMA’s takeaways from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) white paper on the CMS Innovation Center Strategy Refresh: Driving Health System Transformation – A Strategy for the CMS Innovation Center’s Second Decade.
HMA Brief Examines Options for CMMI to Refine Approach for Testing Medicare Program Improvements
This week, our In Focus highlights a recent issue brief, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation: Recommendations for Future Direction, revisits questions raised in a previous HMA report and offers potential answers to guide progress and changes for demonstrations within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) or the Innovation Center.
2022 Star Ratings, An Historical Year
This week, our In Focus provides an analysis of 2022 Medicare Advantage (MA) Star Ratings, including a look at how regulatory changes during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a record number of Medicare plans receiving historically high scores. HMA Managing Director Anthony Davis and Principal Sarah Owens rely on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to take a deep dive into ratings for nearly 500 Medicare plans serving 26.8 million members.
Medicare-Medicaid Integration: Essential Elements, Policy Recommendations for Integrated Dual Eligible Care Programs
This week, our In Focus section releases a new brief from Health Management Associates, Medicare-Medicaid Integration: Essential Program Elements and Policy Recommendations for Integrated Care Programs for Dually Eligible Individuals. The authors are Sarah Barth, Ellen Breslin, Samantha DiPaola and Narda Ipakchi.[1]
State Efforts to Integrate Care Across Medicaid FFS LTSS and Medicare Advantage D-SNPs
This week, our In Focus section reviews a new paper from Health Management Associates,State Efforts to Integrate Care Across Medicaid Fee-for-Service Long-Term Services and Supports and Medicare Advantage Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans by Sarah Barth, Rachel Deadmon and Julie Faulhaber. Funded by UnitedHealthcare, this paper outlines approaches taken by Medicaid programs seeking to coordinate Medicare and Medicaid services for dually eligible individuals without first implementing standalone Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) programs.
Which Medicare Changes Should Continue Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic? Four Questions for Policymakers
In an issue brief prepared for The Commonwealth Fund and The SCAN Foundation, HMA consultant Jennifer Podulka and Vice President Jonathan Blum, analyze the temporary COVID-19-related changes to Medicare regulations, described the benefits and risks of the changes, and offered a framework to support policymakers’ decisions on the future of these temporary policies.
CMS Inpatient Hospital Proposed Rule to Repeal Market-based MS-DRG Weight Methodology
This week, our In Focus section reviews the key provisions of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) Proposed Rule (CMS-1752-P), which includes Medicare payment updates and policy changes for the upcoming FY, with a comment deadline of June 28, 2021. This year’s proposed rule includes several proposals the hospital industry should carefully consider. In particular, the Biden Administration has proposed to:
HMA Analysis Finds Provider Sponsored MA Plans Generally Have Lower Churn Rates
This week, our In Focus section examines differences in Medicare Advantage (MA) churn rates among select provider-sponsored plans (PSPs) and non-PSPs. Enrollee churn rates, or rates at which enrollees switch plans, may be an indicator of enrollee satisfaction. In the years studied, PSP organizations had lower average churn rates compared to non-PSP organizations.
Dual Eligible Financial Alignment Demonstration Enrollment Updated
This week, our In Focus section reviews publicly available data on enrollment in capitated financial and administrative alignment demonstrations (“Duals Demonstrations”) for individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid (dual eligibles) in nine states: California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Texas. Each of these states has begun either voluntary or passive enrollment of dual eligibles into fully integrated plans providing both Medicaid and Medicare benefits (“Medicare-Medicaid Plans,” or “MMPs”) under three-way contracts between the state, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the MMP. As of February 2021, approximately 392,000 dual eligibles were enrolled in an MMP. Enrollment rose 5.7 percent from February of the previous year.