Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans

This brief draws from interviews with states operating new and long-standing MLTSS programs to identify six major trends in the refinement of MLTSS and underlying LTSS delivery systems nationally. The states examined in this brief are strengthening their Medicaid MLTSS programs to serve more LTSS beneficiaries and facilitate the development of integrated care programs that reduce service fragmentation for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees, particularly through Medicare Advantage D-SNPs

In 2021, under a recently released rule from CMS, D-SNPs will be required to notify the state or state’s designee when enrollees experience Medicare-covered hospital or skilled nursing facility admissions in order to ensure timely transitions of care. The Integrated Care Resource Center has released a brief that examines approaches from three states – Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee – to develop and implement information-sharing processes for their D-SNPs that support care transitions.

CMS regularly reports data on health plan enrollment, quality, and compliance that states can use to monitor the performance of the Medicare Advantage Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) they contract with to serve Medicare-Medicaid enrollees. This technical assistance tool shows how states can use these data to create tables, graphs, and figures and interpret their meaning in order to assess D-SNP performance.