Insights

HMA Insights: Your source for healthcare news, ideas and analysis.

HMA Insights – including our new podcast – puts the vast depth of HMA’s expertise at your fingertips, helping you stay informed about the latest healthcare trends and topics. Below, you can easily search based on your topic of interest to find useful information from our podcast, blogs, webinars, case studies, reports and more.

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Webinar

Webinar Replay: Leveraging the Primary Care Team’s Strengths During Reopening: Part 2 – Adapting the Environment

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This webinar was held on July 22, 2020.

Before reopening for in-person visits, primary care practices must address a wide variety of safety considerations, including infection control protocols; modifications to offices, waiting areas, and exam rooms; staffing and workflow issues; and other strategies that minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for both patients and staff. During this 30-minute webinar, HMA primary care experts discussed best practices for successfully reopening primary care practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand key clinical, physical office, and financial considerations for reopening primary care practices to in-person patient care.
  2. Learn about the availability of decision-support tools and resources to assist primary care practices with reopening.
  3. Find out about infection control protocols and other best practices to ensure the safety of patients and staff during reopening.
  4. Learn how the “new normal” of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic variously impacts clinicians, administrative staff, and leadership, including a look at new protocols and workflows.

Speakers

Karen Hill, PhD, ANP-C, MSN, RN, Senior Consultant, San Francisco, CA
Brittany LaBarreare, Senior Consultant, Austin, TX
Gail Mayeaux, Principal, Albany, NY
Deb Peartree, Senior Consultant, Albany, NY

Blog

Medicaid and Exchange Enrollment Update – March 2020

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This week, our In Focus section reviews updated information issued by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Medicaid expansion enrollment from the “March 2020 Medicaid and CHIP Applications, Eligibility Determination, and Enrollment Report,” published on June 22, 2020. Additionally, we review 2020 Exchange enrollment data from the “Health Insurance Exchanges 2020 Open Enrollment Period: Final State-Level Public Use File,” published by CMS on April 2, 2020. Combined, these reports present a picture of Medicaid and Exchange enrollment in early 2020, leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic and representing 70.9 million Medicaid and CHIP enrollees and 11.4 million Exchange enrollees. Medicaid/CHIP and Exchange enrollment is expected to rise in 2020 according to a team of HMA Medicaid experts, health economists, and data analysts. A previous In Focus on HMA’s forecast model can be found here.

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Webinar

Webinar Replay: Leveraging the Primary Care Team’s Strengths During Reopening: Part 1 – The Workforce

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This webinar was held on July 15, 2020.

In this three-part series, HMA experts will cover topics that are important for primary care practices to consider and employ as they reopen for face-to-face visits.

As primary care practices reopen around the country, many of them are adopting novel hybrid models combining in-person and virtual care. In this half-hour presentation with primary care leaders and clinical innovators, we discussed the key challenges for flexing the primary care workforce in this hybrid environment.

Learning Objectives

  1. Learn more about a model of hybrid primary care that combines in-person and virtual visits…
  2. Identify best practices for changing workflows and managing staff members remotely in the hybrid primary care model.
  3. Discuss technological strategies for integrating behavioral health into the flow of hybrid primary care.

Speakers

Dr. Barry J. Jacobs, Principal, Philadelphia, PA
Gail Mayeaux, Principal, Albany, NY
Deb Peartree, Senior Consultant, Albany, NY
Caitlin Thomas-Henkel, Senior Consultant, Philadelphia, PA

Webinar

Webinar Replay: HMA Community Health Worker Webinar Series Part 2: The Role of Community Health Workers as COVID-19 Contact Tracers

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This webinar was held on July 13, 2020. 

Aggressive COVID-19 contact tracing is key to state reopening strategies. During this webinar, HMA community health experts addressed how community health workers can play a critical role in contact tracing, leveraging their trusted position in local communities and simultaneously furthering efforts to assist patients with multiple needs, including housing instability, food insecurity and co-morbidity. HMA experts also outlined best practices for establishing a contact tracing infrastructure and discuss how community health workers are positioned to emerge as the vanguard for COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how to apply creative workforce strategies to address contact tracing, isolation support, co-morbid disease management, and immunization efforts.
  • Obtain creative financing and sustainability strategies for staffing and infrastructure.
  • Understand how community health workers and paraprofessionals can play an expanded role in the post-COVID-19 delivery system of the future.

HMA Speakers

Kathleen Nolan, Vice President, Washington, DC
Pat Casanova, Principal, Indianapolis, IN
Uma Ahluwalia, Principal, Washington, DC

 

A recording of the first webinar and supporting materials are now available here.

Blog

GAO 50-State Medicaid Survey on Federal Policy Challenges

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This week our In Focus section summarizes the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) Medicaid report, State Views on Program Administration Challenges, released earlier this year. GAO conducted interviews with Medicaid officials from 50 states and the District of Columbia to identify challenges related to federal Medicaid policies.  

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Webinar

Webinar Replay: Nursing Home Revenue Diversification and Care Options Series: Exploring Medicare Advantage as an Alternative Revenue Source for Post-Acute Providers

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This webinar was held on July 17, 2020.

Even before COVID-19, post-acute providers such as nursing homes struggled with inadequate reimbursement rates and declining occupancy rates. This, along with additional stressors brought on by the pandemic, has led many nursing homes to consider revenue diversification and service expansion strategies. During this webinar (the first in a series), HMA Medicare Advantage and long-term care experts addressed two such options for nursing homes: Medicare Advantage Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNP) and Institutional-Equivalent Special Needs Plans (IE-SNP).

Learning Objectives

  • Understand Medicare Advantage, its significance and its growth
  • Identify types of Medicare Advantage options for residents and community-based beneficiaries
  • Explore how Medicare Advantage can serve as a potential revenue diversification strategy
  • Learn about the benefits and risks of   Medicare Advantage, in particular for I-SNPs
  • Identify how to assess if an I-SNP or an IE-SNP is the right opportunity for your organization

HMA Speakers

Mary Hsieh, Managing Principal, Atlanta, GA
Susan Tucker, Principal, Tallahassee, FL

Blog

CMS Medicare Advantage and Section 1876 Cost Plan Network Adequacy Update

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This week, our In Focus section examines new guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding Medicare Advantage (MA) plan network adequacy requirements. On June 17, 2020, CMS released updated Medicare Advantage and 1876 Cost Plan Network Adequacy Guidance for Medicare Advantage (MA) health plans to use now for Contract Year 2021 network submission. 

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Webinar

Webinar Replay: HMA Community Health Worker Webinar Series Part 1: Health and Human Services Workforce Needs in the Context of COVID-19

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This webinar was held on June 30, 2020.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments and safety net providers are faced with a clear indication of disparities in population health outcomes and looming budgetary challenges across the nation. These entities are committed to their residents and are looking for creative strategies to mitigate health risks and deliver responsive health and human services despite budgetary challenges. As such, the role of the community health worker or the navigator rises to the top. Engaging and integrating trusted community health workers and other paraprofessionals is a promising, cost-effective and trust-building practice that can support the seamless dissemination of these essential services in these unprecedented times.

This webinar was the first in HMA’s Community Health Worker Series. During this webinar, HMA experts put forth a value proposition for the timely engagement and integration of community health workers/navigators/peer support specialists in the delivery of health and human services. Presenters provided several compelling case studies and three successful implementation models for integrating paraprofessionals into the delivery system. Participants learned how community health workers are poised to support the unique needs of residents in urban, suburban, rural, and public health and human services settings. Finally, respondents reflected on the paraprofessional role from a social determinants of health standpoint and from the perspective of minority populations and their communities.

Learning Objectives: 

  • Understand the role community health workers and other paraprofessionals can play in the health and human services workforce in the COVID-19 era.
  • Learn how select states explored the certification, education, financing and roles of community health workers and other paraprofessionals when integrated into specific health and human services.
  • Find out how to build trust in minority communities, incorporating social determinants of health in the COVID-19 recovery response at the crossroads of health disparities and racial inequities.

HMA Speakers

Uma Ahluwalia, Principal, Washington, DC
Heidi Arthur, Principal, New York, NY
Stephanie Denning, Principal, Denver, CO
Julia Elitzer, Senior Consultant, San Francisco, CA
Iliana Gilman, Principal, Austin, TX
Catherine Guerrero, Principal, Denver, CO
Lori Weiselberg, Managing Principal, Chicago, IL

Reference Materials:

The National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) has a great website of state CHW models:  https://www.nashp.org/state-community-health-worker-models/

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) features tools and information about CHWs at: https://www.astho.org/Community-Health-Workers/

There is also a helpful image describing the ever-changing picture of state approaches to CHW certification as well: https://www.astho.org/Programs/Clinical-to-Community-Connections/Documents/Map-of-State-Approaches-to-CHW-Certification/

Multnomah County training: https://multco.us/health/community-health/community-health-worker-training

SAMHSA has great resources: https://www.samhsa.gov/brss-tacs/recovery-support-tools/youth-young-adults

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6703286/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3343233/

The VT interview is the March 4, 2020 podcast.  https://www.aha.org/advocacy/small-or-rural/rural-report-podcast-series