« The Dual Agenda: May 14, 2015 Issue
State Highlights
Michigan
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services posted an informational video on MI Health Link, the state’s dual eligible demonstration project.
Ohio
On April 27, Cleveland hosted the fourth of five White House Conference on Aging regional forums, following on earlier ones held in Tampa, Phoenix and Seattle. The forums are designed to help provide input and ideas for the 2015 White House Conference on Aging, which will be held in Washington, DC later this year.The event was attended by Carol Culley and Semanthie Brooks, both members of the Ohio Consumer Voices for Integrated Care (OCVIC), a project of Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN). Topics focused on healthy aging, long-term services and supports, elder justice and retirement security. In addition to attending the regional forum, Semanthie Brooks assisted with organizing a local rally of older adults who wanted to make sure that their voices were heard. Senior Voice, a NE Ohio grassroots group that worked with OCVIC to educate consumers about MyCare Ohio, participated in the rally, along with several labor unions, the Alliance for Retired Americans, Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging and other local organizations. Speakers at the rally included Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Marcy Kaptur.
The last of the regional forums will take place in Boston on May 28.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Voices for Better Health partners are playing a key role in the Working Group to Reinvent Medicaid organized by Governor Gina Raimondo, including testifying at public hearings. In addition, Maureen Maigret, on behalf of the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island is serving on the LongTerm Care workgroup and led the efforts to generate ideas around nursing home transitions. Many of these are reflected in the recommendations that were submitted on April 30by the governor as part of the "Reinventing Medicaid Act of 2015" for the FY2016 budget.
In other news, Martha Watson, Advanced Nurse Practice Manager at Miriam Hospital and Geriatric Provider Advocate for the Rhode Island Voices for Better Health project, conducted the final training session with a group of nurse case managers at the Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (NHPRI) on topics in care for the older adult population. This session was on “Pain Management in the Elderly.” NHPRI is currently serving the long-term care needs of dual eligibles, and is expected to be part of Rhode Island’s forthcoming duals demonstration project.
Finally, the Long Term Care Coordinating Council presented enrollment updates on the Integrated Care Initiative (ICI) at its meeting on May 13. As of May 1, 21,537 individuals were enrolled in the ICI. Of those, 17,700 are enrolled in Rhody Health Options and 3,837 in Connect Care Choice Community Partners. Rhode Island is pursuing its ICI in two waves. The first focuses on managing Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS) and improving the coordination of primary care, behavioral health services and home and community-based services. Phase One services are available for dually eligible beneficiaries, as well as Medicaid beneficiaries receiving LTSS. The second phase will be focused on moving to full integration of Medicaid and Medicare services for dually eligible beneficiaries pursuant to the forthcoming demonstration project with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Virginia
The Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) recently updated its enrollment dashboard for the Commonwealth Coordinated Care (CCC) program, the state’s dual eligible demonstration project. As of April 6, 27,349 individuals are enrolled in the program and 26,371 have opted out. According to the dashboard, 44percent of those who opted out in March preferred traditional Medicaid and 33percent of disenrollments were because a preferred provider was not participating.