Radar on Medicare Advantage

In an effort to improve Medicare Advantage and Part D sponsors’ timeliness in processing Parts C and D coverage requests, CMS several years ago launched the Timeliness Monitoring Project (TMP) and began issuing fines to Part D plans with excessively high rates of “auto-forwarding” to the Independent Review Entity (IRE). And while CMS historically deducted one star from the appeals measure-level ratings based on IRE data integrity issues, the TMP also resulted in a scaled reduction intended to reflect the severity of the plan’s failures. Now, CMS is relieving MA organizations of that penalty by suspending the collection of Part C Organization Determinations, Appeals and Grievances (ODAG) universes for non-audited organizations that impacted the appeals measures.

Parts C and D sponsors are required to notify enrollees within specific time frames of their decisions on a coverage determination or redetermination. When plans miss that window, it’s considered an adverse decision, and sponsors are expected to automatically forward the case to the IRE within 24 hours. There are two Part C Star Ratings “appeals measures” that rely on data submitted to the IRE:

New data from Deft Research suggests that Medicare Advantage plans continue to struggle with retaining their dual eligible members, mainly because of problems associated with the supplemental benefits offered to address social needs. Published on June 29, Deft’s 2023 Dual Eligible Retention Study found that duals switch plans at about twice the rate of other MA beneficiaries. And while Deft says duals “absolutely depend” on supplemental benefits such as dental care, grocery allowances and utility assistance, duals’ reported issues with their current health coverage often stem from these enhanced offerings, whether they be a source of confusion or just prove difficult to use.  

An estimated 30% of dual eligibles make a coverage change over the course of a year, and 8% of duals have already made a switch this year as of mid-May, according to Deft. (Dual eligibles can enroll in or switch dual plans once per quarterly Special Enrollment Period or during the Medicare Annual Election Period). By contrast, Deft in its 2023 Medicare Shopping and Switching Study, which is based on the responses of about 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries, observed that switching by “full pay” (i.e., those receiving no extra help) MA beneficiaries shot up to 15% this past AEP, compared with 12% in the prior two periods.

From reforming the Star Ratings program intended to steer consumers to the highest-quality plans to reducing gaming of the current risk adjustment system used to set insurer payments, the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) is envisioning the future of Medicare Advantage with MA for Tomorrow. While the new framework, released last month, comes at a time when the Star Ratings and other aspects of the MA program are under intense scrutiny, ACHP tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that it is the result of a multiyear collaboration with subject matter experts at its provider-aligned, not-for-profit health plans.

ACHP provides recommendations around five key pillars: raising the bar on quality, improving consumer navigation, advancing risk adjustment for care not coding, modernizing network composition and transforming benchmarks. And it says many of the provisions contained in these pillars can be implemented right away. AIS Health spoke with ACHP’s president and CEO, Ceci Connolly, and associate vice president for public policy, Michael Bagel, to learn more about the specific recommendations. (Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

A large swath of Medicare Advantage members report experiencing health-related social needs (HRSNs), such as financial troubles and unreliable access to transportation, according to new research from Humana Inc. published in the July issue of Health Affairs. Researchers surveyed more than 60,000 Humana members (which also included about 12,000 Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles) in 2019 and found that more than half (56%) reported experiencing at least one HRSN. Financial strain, food insecurity and poor housing quality were the most reported issues.

Some HRSNs — namely unreliable transportation — were more commonly associated with hospitalizations and heavier emergency department (ED) use, researchers found. The overall burden of HRSNs also made an impact, with beneficiaries reporting multiple HRSNs experiencing more hospitalizations.