Consumer Engagement

After pushing for new limits on broker compensation and other changes to ensure seniors are guided to Medicare Advantage and Part D plans that best meet their needs, the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) on April 4 celebrated a victory with the release of CMS’s final rule making policy and technical changes for the 2025 plan year. ACHP, which represents provider-aligned, not-for-profit health plans, had spelled out its hopes for these policies in its broader “MA for Tomorrow” framework and provided Senate testimony on the impact of excessive “add-on” broker fees paid by larger plans. After CMS issued its final rule containing new marketing-related policies, AIS Health, a division of MMIT, spoke with ACHP’s executive vice president of public policy, Dan Jones, to learn more about the group’s position.

Building on a sweeping set of marketing-related provisions that went into effect this year, CMS’s recently finalized 2025 Medicare Advantage and Part D rule put new restraints on agent and broker compensation, among other things. The provisions advance the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to shield consumers from misleading marketing, but with more of a focus on activities performed by independent agents and brokers rather than the broader third-party marketing organization (TPMO) industry that was targeted in previous rulemaking. Industry experts tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that the finalized provisions are still open to interpretation when it comes to the role of one type of TPMO — field marketing organizations (FMO) — which often conduct lead generating and advertising on behalf of plans.

Sending informational emails helped lead to some California residents switching to superior Affordable Care Act exchange plans, according to a study published on March 29 in JAMA Health Forum. However, Marina Lovchikova, Ph.D., the trial’s lead author, points out that the vast majority of households remained in their original plans and the impact on health care utilization was minimal. This suggests that more can be done to make sure enrollees are fully aware of their options and eligibility for more generous plans, she tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT.

Lovchikova, a senior researcher at Covered California, says the state’s exchange is “trying to get people to the coverage that could be most affordable for them and increase the access for their coverage. Some methods the state employs are sending emails or doing other low-cost, so-called nudges, which attempt to inform residents of their options but not automatically enroll them in another plan without their consent.

Thanks to a final rule published just one year ago, Medicare Advantage plans as of Jan. 1 were expected to meet new constraints when it comes to applying their utilization management (UM) policies, including prior authorization. CMS has said it aims to assess UM-related performance of plans serving 88% of beneficiaries this year, and it intends to accomplish this through both routine program audits and “focused audits.” According to compliance experts, the volume of audit activity since CMS began sending engagement letters in late February suggests the agency is eager to meet its goal, but it may not like what it finds.

Nearly a year into the massive nationwide effort to reverify Medicaid eligibility after a pause in redeterminations during the COVID-19 pandemic, about 40% of renewals have yet to occur. With millions of people estimated to have lost coverage because of administrative or procedural reasons, states have an opportunity to work with managed care organizations and other health care providers to innovate and improve existing processes that aren’t working, according to panelists at a recent session of AHIP’s 2024 Medicare, Medicaid, Duals & Commercial Markets Forum, held March 12 to 14 in Baltimore.

“This is still very much in progress,” and “these next few months are going to be very important,” declared panelist Kate Honsberger, a director with NORC at the University of Chicago. States as of April 1, 2023, were allowed to begin disenrolling people from Medicaid who no longer qualify, but they have 12 months to complete eligibility redeterminations, which may have kicked off at different times depending on the state.

Privately insured enrollees are generally satisfied with their health plan selection process and benefits, according to recently released data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research.

The Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey found that the majority of adults surveyed obtained their health insurance coverage through their job or a spouse’s job. Most individuals said they were satisfied with various aspects of their health plan coverage. Over half of enrollees were extremely or very satisfied with their open enrollment process.

Like its competitors, Humana Inc.’s evolution from a pure-play health insurer to a highly diversified health care firm came with a rebranding. To that end, Humana Pharmacy — the company’s mail-order and retail pharmacy brand — in 2022 became CenterWell Pharmacy, nestled under the company’s CenterWell health services subsidiary. Now, that division not only has a new name, but also a new app.

The app — which is available to CenterWell Pharmacy members covered by Humana’s Medicare Advantage and Part D plans — represents a “total redesign,” with increased personalization capabilities and a streamlined approach to prescription management, the firm said in a Feb. 20 press release.

In a new draft guidance document, CMS lays out a litany of tasks Medicare Part D plans must complete to help enrollees take advantage of an Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provision that allows people to pay off their prescription drug copays over time.

The memo is the second draft guidance document released by CMS regarding the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan, or “copay smoothing” — a program that the managed care sector appears to be growing uneasy about.

“Part D smoothing is coming; it’s coming like a typhoon,” said Nikki Hungate, an industry consultant speaking at the 7th Annual Medicare Advantage Leadership Innovations conference, held Jan. 30-31 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As Medicare members become increasingly comfortable with using technology to manage their care at home, tech-enabled vendors continue to flood the Medicare Advantage space to offer solutions aimed at everything from fall prevention and functional mobility to specific conditions like Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. Speaking at the 7th Annual Medicare Advantage Leadership Innovations forum, held Jan. 30 and 31 in Scottsdale, Arizona, vendors and MA plans shared the nuanced and personalized approaches they’ve taken to engage seniors with digital solutions.

“I think one of the challenges with [seniors and] technology is trying to really navigate tension between high tech and high touch. And I think that’s one of the things that you need to really figure out with your members early on: What are their preferences and needs? What resources do they have available?” said Joel Salinas, M.D., chief medical officer with Isaac Health, who spoke on a member engagement panel moderated by AIS Health, a division of MMIT.

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division recently launched a new direct-to-consumer telehealth prescribing venture as part of its Optum Perks vertical, joining a crowded field of DTC prescribing and dispensing. Experts say that the Optum Perks debut is proof that DTC prescribing around “lifestyle drugs” will likely continue to grow rapidly, but they say that there are clear downsides around utilization management and care coordination — particularly where glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists are concerned.

Optum Perks’ rollout follows closely on the heels of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Lilly Direct launch, which also saw a health care giant steer into DTC prescribing waters. Lilly and industry watchers say that Lilly Direct is mainly intended to dispense its tirzepatide GLP-1 drugs, known by the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound. Patients may or may not be able to obtain GLP-1s from Optum Perks; UnitedHealth’s press release doesn’t have a comprehensive list of drugs offered under the service, although it says that “low-cost care and prescription treatments for hundreds of conditions ranging from acne to a cough to high blood pressure” are available.