« The Dual Agenda: February 19, 2015 Issue

Featured Resources

MMCO Posts New Data on Enrollment, Age and Health Risk Assessment in the Financial Alignment Initiative

The Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office has provided preliminary data on enrollment, age, and health risk assessment experience to date for the capitated financial alignment demonstrations in five states: California; Illinois; Massachusetts; Ohio and Virginia. According to the data, total enrollment in these five states is 331,452 with 56 percent of the population 65 or older and 73 percent of beneficiaries have had their assessments completed within 90 days.  

CHCS Brief on Training Care Managers Serving Dual Eligible Beneficiaries

The Center for Health Care Strategies published a new brief on strategies for hiring and training care managers for health plans with integrated care programs serving Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries. It offers lessons from five health plans with integrated care products to inform other health plans and states. The paper identifies the following broad strategies to guide the hiring and training of care managers:  

1. Hire diverse staff with strong community connections
2. Develop tailored training approaches that provide foundational skills, address members’ diverse needs, and incorporate state resources
3. Use multiple training modes tailored to each new hire
4. Align training programs and staff across integrated care programs
5. Dedicate staff or departments exclusively to training
6. Standardize training of delegates while allowing for flexibility
7. Address new program requirements and issues in ongoing training
8. Cultivate internal feedback mechanisms through open dialogue and shared learning

CHCS also shared resources from a webinar they hosted for California’s Medi-Cal health plans on strategies for hiring and training care managers in integrated care programs.

CHCS Brief on Delivery of Social Services through Medicaid ACOs

The Center for Health Care Strategies published a new brief  that outlines early efforts

by state Medicaid agencies to incorporate social services into Accountable Care Organization (ACO) models, including key themes and considerations for other states. The brief highlights three main levers to support collaboration between ACO and social service providers: program and governance requirements; financial incentives; and data‐sharing infrastructure.