Radar on Medicare Advantage

Preliminary enrollment figures from the 2020 Annual Election Period (AEP) indicate that Medicare Advantage enrollment surpassed 24.3 million lives, up 8.8% from 22.4 million posted a year ago. The January enrollment report from CMS reflects enrollments accepted through Dec. 6, 2019, just one day before the AEP closed. Final enrollment figures will be disclosed in the February report. CMS has projected overall MA enrollment growth of 10% from 2019 to 2020.

According to Barclays securities analyst Steve Valiquette, publicly traded insurers “continue to consolidate share in the Individual market.” Market leader UnitedHealth Group added 307,000 lives for a year-over-year increase of 13.5% that was in line with the company’s expectations, he observed in a Jan. 10 research note. During a Jan. 15 conference call to discuss fourth-quarter 2019 earnings, UnitedHealth executives said they expect the final AEP increase to be 370,000 lives, for the company’s “strongest performance ever” in that period.

Though a small assist in the gargantuan task that is improving Medicare Advantage provider directory accuracy, CMS’s new plan to use the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) as a reference source may help insurers gain better insight into the accuracy of their own data. But insurers should be wary of the database’s shortcomings, and they will have to work with their provider partners to ensure that they are making timely updates to the NPPES, industry experts advise.

As of Jan. 1, the NPPES will enable providers to substantiate the accuracy of their National Provider Identifier (NPI) data, according to a Jan. 3 memo from the Medicare Drug & Health Plan Contract Administration Group within the CMS Center for Medicare. The NPPES contains certain core directory elements (e.g., name, address, specialty, telephone number) in “a machine-readable format for virtually every provider in the country,” explained CMS. The agency has for years maintained that accurate directory data is critical for beneficiary access, while repeated reviews of online directories have found that they are rife with errors.

The biggest news out of CMS’s Jan. 6 release of Part I of the 2021 Advance Notice may be that there was no news. As expected, CMS proposed continuing to phase out risk score data based on diagnoses contained in the legacy Risk Adjustment Processing System (RAPS) and increasing the use of encounter data that still vexes some Medicare Advantage organizations. But the document left out any mention of possible payment revisions for the expected influx of MA enrollees with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) next year, raising the question of when (and how) CMS might address a payment structure that is seen as inadequate by some industry stakeholders.

This is the third year CMS is publishing the Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for MA Capitation Rates and Part D Payment Policies in two parts, thanks to the 21st Century Cures Act (signed into law in 2016) requiring that any proposed changes to the CMS Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) risk adjustment model have a 60-day comment period.

In a move that may turn heads in other historically red states that have held off on expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning on Jan. 9 said they’d reached a compromise proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to an estimated 130,000 more low-income Kansans. While the plan is still subject to votes, it contains elements of a state House plan that was rejected by the Senate last year and key components that address concerns from both parties, representing an example of bipartisan compromise that some advocates hope has a ripple effect.

If approved, Kansas will pursue a full expansion of Medicaid to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) with a 90/10 funding match. The state will also seek Section 1332 waiver approval to establish a reinsurance program and Section 1115 waiver approval to transition individuals whose incomes fall between 100% and 138% of the FPL from Medicaid to the exchange no later than Jan. 1, 2022, although expansion is not dependent on those waivers. If CMS denies either waiver, full Medicaid expansion will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2021, according to a summary of the pending legislation.

✦ CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield plans to acquire two Medicaid managed care organizations in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas, respectively. CareFirst on Dec. 20 said it reached separate definitive agreements with Trusted Health Plan, a Medicaid MCO operating exclusively in Washington, D.C., and University of Maryland Health Partners, which serves 47,000 Medicaid enrollees in 20 Maryland counties and Baltimore. The latter is owned by the University of Maryland Medical System, which also offers a Medicare Advantage plan that was not part of the transaction. Trusted began operations in 2013 and covers more than 34,000 enrollees; the company sold its Michigan managed Medicaid business to Health Alliance Plan in June 2019 (RMA 6/20/19, p. 8). View the announcement at https://bit.ly/2uar20l.

✦ In its first partnership with a managed Medicaid plan, Fitbit this month kicked off a new wellness program with WellCare of Georgia Medicaid. Amy McDonough, senior vice president and general manager for Fitbit Health Solutions, in a LinkedIn blog post explained that approximately 4,000 WellCare members with type 2 diabetes will be eligible to receive a Fitbit Inspire device, along with educational materials and activity challenges through Fitbit’s platform. The aim of the new program is to help members adopt healthier behaviors to better manage their diabetes, she wrote. This builds on the company’s growing number of partnerships in the Medicare Advantage market. Fitbit said its devices will be included in MA plans offered this year by three insurers, including as an embedded benefit in 59 plans offered by UnitedHealthcare across 27 states. Visit https://bit.ly/2QG5XSZ.