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.
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HMA brief examines state efforts to integrate care across Medicaid FFS LTSS and Medicare Advantage D-SNPs
Funded by UnitedHealthcare, the issue brief, State Efforts to Integrate Care Across Medicaid Fee-for-Service Long-Term Services and Supports and Medicare Advantage Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans, 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.
Authors are Sarah Barth, Rachel Deadmon and Julie Faulhaber.

HMA examines CMS Innovation Models over the past decade
A new issue brief and accompanying data set by HMA colleagues examines models implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (The Innovation Center) over the past decade and provides evaluation of the findings.

Former Florida Medicaid Director Joins Health Management Associates
Health Management Associates (HMA) announced today that Beth Kidder, former Florida deputy secretary for Medicaid, is joining the national healthcare consulting firm as a managing principal in its Tallahassee office on August 16.

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.

HMA authors report examining future of COVID-19 Medicare regulation changes
A new Issue Brief, authored by Jennifer Podulka and Jon Blum, examines the many changes to Medicare regulations put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief, Which Medicare Changes Should Continue Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic? Four Questions for Policymakers, tracks and categorizes the regulatory changes, describes the benefits and risks of the changes, and establishes a framework to support policymakers’ decisions regarding the future for the changes after the pandemic ends.

CMS proposed rule to repeal market-based MS-DRG weight methodology for inpatient hospitals
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 2021 enrollment update
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.

Leavitt Partners to Become Part of Health Management Associates
Today, Jay Rosen, founder and president of Health Management Associates (HMA), and Governor Mike Leavitt, founder and Chair of Leavitt Partners, announced the two firms have come together as one entity. Leavitt Partners will continue operating as Leavitt Partners, an HMA Company.

HMA analysis of Medicare Advantage Star rating challenges
This week, our In Focus section highlights changes that may affect the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Advantage Star Rating program and how these changes impact future summary Part C & D Star Rating scores. As the CMS Medicare Advantage Star Rating program continues evolving from year to year, many plans have yet to achieve at least four star status, and therefore are missing out on additional Medicare revenues. The Star Rating landscape is expected to change drastically over the next two years for plans due to CMS’ continued focus on phasing-in greater reliance on outcomes measures and measures of care experience, rather than process measures. As a result, many plans are at risk of losing their four star overall rating and underperforming plans could be at risk of receiving a low performance indicator.
