​Enrollment in private Medicare Advantage health plans is steadily increasing and benefit packages are evolving. For the third year, plans are allowed to offer non-medical supplemental benefits including in-home support services and adult day care. Where are these benefits being offered across the country and what do these benefits mean today for your organization and clients? Is there a longer-term opportunity to consider?

​HCAOA is a proud ally of the Better Medicare Alliance, which released new research last week showing that Medicare Advantage offerings for 2021 increased in 88% of supplemental benefit types - that's 36 out of 41 categories, which is an opportunity for home care to be available to more Medicare beneficiaries.

​HCAOA Associate Member AlayaCare is hosting a webinar next week to highlight the value of hospital to home programs and how technology supports this model. As hospital-at-home models become more popular and more beneficial to both patients and health care organizations, those that have recognized the perks of home-based care prior to the COVID-19 crisis may have the upper hand.

​Total national healthcare spending in 2019 grew 4.6%, which was similar to the 4.7% growth in 2018 and the average annual growth since 2016 of 4.5%, according to a study conducted by the Office of the Actuary at CMS and published recently in the journal Health Affairs. This report includes health expenditure data though 2019 and therefore does not include any of the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on health care spending.

HCAOA Executive Director Vicki Hoak recently submitted a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal in support of a recent article about home-based care, which was published this week. ​The article, “Nursing Homes Face Persistent Fall in Use” (12/22/20) outlined that when Medicaid rules were created in the 1960s, ‘rest homes’ were the only option for seniors and that the government must now listen to citizens who want to stay at home as they age. 

​The CMS Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation announced a new model for Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to better serve enrollees who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Currently, Medicaid MCOs do not have an incentive to coordinate care in a way that reduces costs for dually eligible beneficiaries. 

​The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced a new voluntary payment model that aims to deliver Medicare beneficiaries value through better care and improved quality, as well as enhanced benefits such as telehealth and easier access to home care. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has outlined comprehensive steps to provide care to patients outside a traditional hospital setting amid COVID-19 hospitalizations across the country. These flexibilities include allowances for safe hospital care for eligible patients in their homes and updated staffing flexibility designed to allow ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) to provide greater inpatient care when needed. Building on CMS’s previous actions to expand the availability of telehealth across the nation, these actions are aimed at allowing health care services to be provided outside a hospital setting while maintaining capacity to continue critical non-COVID-19 care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has expanded the list of telehealth services that Medicare Fee-For-Service will pay for during the coronavirus public health emergency. Since the beginning of the pandemic, CMS has added more than 135 services to the Medicare telehealth services list – such as emergency department visits, initial inpatient and nursing facility visits, and discharge day management services.