This week, our In Focus section reviews California’s May Revision to the Governor’s Budget, which proposes a $267.8 billion budget (with $196.8 billion General Fund) for fiscal year 2021-22. The revised budget includes $24.4 billion in reserves, the largest in history. The May Revision builds on the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal and introduces several Medi-Cal initiatives and benefits for fiscal year 2021-22.
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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.

CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule – Part 3
This blog was written by Juan Montanez, Principal, HMA, and Robert Chouinard, VP Public Sector, HealthEC
Where are you going to invest to maximize benefits?
In thinking about the value that can be derived from implementation of the Interoperability Rule, both payers and providers need to ensure their perspective of the rule positions them for long-term success.

CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule – Part 2
This blog was written by Laura Zaremba, Principal, HMA, and Robert Chouinard, VP Public Sector, HealthEC
Making the Economics Work for You
Most health care organizations impacted by the Interoperability Rule have very logically focused their attention and resources on interpreting what the new rule requires them to do within their own systems, in what timeframe, and at what cost. And to be sure, scoping the work and deploying the resources required to meet the compliance deadlines is a significant investment of time and money, but the compliance focus should be only the first action step for to the Interoperability Rule.

Nevada Releases Medicaid Managed Care RFP
This week, our In Focus section reviews the Nevada Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) managed care request for proposals (RFP) released by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Care Financing and Policy (DHCFP) on March 17, 2021. The RFP is for the current service area covering two urban counties of the state, Clark and Washoe; however, the state may extend the geographic service area under the contract. Through this RFP, Nevada seeks to advance the state’s goals of “improved clarity and oversight of requirements; increased focus on care management, member engagement, and access; and continued progress towards integration of services and efficiency.”

Individualized technical assistance to Medicaid providers in the My Health GPS program
The My Health GPS (MHGPS) initiative, a Health Homes program, was launched by the District of Columbia, Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) to deliver care coordination services to Medicaid beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions. The MHGPS program was led by multi-disciplinary teams within the primary care setting to coordinate care across medical, behavioral, and social service systems.
The initiative was designed to improve MHGPS enrollees’ health outcomes and reduce avoidable and preventable hospital admissions and emergency room visits.
Download to read the approach and results.

Highlights from Kaiser/HMA 50-state Medicaid director survey: COVID-19 update for FY 2021 and FY 2022
This week, our In Focus section shares key takeaways from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and Health Management Associates (HMA) mini-survey of Medicaid directors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia titled, Medicaid Spending and Enrollment Trends Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic – Updated for FY 2021 & Looking Ahead to FY 2022. The survey, released on March 12, 2021, is an update to the 20th annual Medicaid Budget Survey conducted by KFF and HMA. The brief is authored by Elizabeth Hinton, Lina Stolyar, and Robin Rudowitz from KFF with survey assistance and dissemination from HMA Principal Kathy Gifford and Consultant Anh Pham.

Health Management Associates Awarded on the Forbes America’s Best Management Consulting Firms 2021 List

California Releases Revised CalAIM Proposal
This week, our In Focus section summarizes the revised California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal, released on February 17, 2021. Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, covers over 12 million individuals, with over 11 million in managed care. CalAIM seeks to standardize and streamline the Medi-Cal program and address health disparities and social determinants of health for high-risk, high-cost Medi-Cal members through broad-based delivery system, program, and payment reform. CalAIM was originally scheduled to begin its tiered implementation in January 2021, but due to COVID-19 has been delayed until January 2022. The revised proposal incorporates additional stakeholder input, learnings from the workgroup meetings, and ongoing policy development.

CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule – Part 1
This blog was written by Laura Zaremba, Principal, HMA, and Robert Chouinard, VP Public Sector, HealthEC
What are we really talking about?
CMS published the Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule in the Federal Register on March 4, 2019, the pre-publication text of the final rule was released on March 9, 2020, and the final rule was published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2020. The rules are effective as of January 2021 and will be enforced by July 2021.

HMA provides updates in 2021 federal healthcare policy landscape
This week, our In Focus comes from an HMA cross-cutting subject matter team, who have updated a core set of federal policy slides that analyzes recent federal policy actions following the Presidential and Congressional elections. It includes an analysis of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief legislation currently in development and recent CMS regulatory and administrative actions. Specifically, the analysis looks at:

Medicaid Managed Care Spending in 2020
This week, our In Focus section reviews preliminary 2020 Medicaid spending data collected in the annual CMS-64 Medicaid expenditure report. After submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HMA received a draft version of the CMS-64 report that is based on preliminary estimates of Medicaid spending by state for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020. Based on the preliminary estimates, Medicaid expenditures on medical services across all 50 states and six territories in FFY 2020 exceeded $649.4 billion, with over half of the total now flowing through Medicaid managed care programs. In addition, total Medicaid spending on administrative services was $29.7 billion, bringing total program expenditures to $679.1 billion.