As the only non-association conference focused on special needs plans (SNP), the annual event provides key insights for operational, clinical, compliance, and marketing specialists. This year’s conference will be held live and in-person, June 22-24, at the Westin Times Square in New York City.
The Special Needs Plan Leadership Summit will feature preconference workshops on June 22, followed by two days of general sessions to equip attendees with resources to improve patient outcomes through new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) audit protocols and integration, marketing and operational strategies, and compliance and audit readiness benchmarks.
Preconference workshops
There will be two back-to-back preconference workshops on Wednesday, June 22:
The first workshop will be a Special Needs Plan 101 to provide vital information for effective SNP oversight. Attendees will learn best practices for the day-to-day role of a SNP oversight professional, critical processes and regulations that impact the success of a SNP program, the breakdown of membership to identify the needs of each sub population and which membership population will consume most resources, and the basic principles of creating a Model of Care (MOC), and common pitfalls.
The second workshop will take things a step further, exploring innovative approaches to prepare for successful SNP expansion. Throughout the session, attendees will explore competitor plans to identify areas of improvement within their plan to entice new members to enroll, which supplemental benefits and incentives are most valuable to retain current members and attract new ones, new supplemental benefits available that would attract members and be helpful to existing ones, which partnerships can be made within your community to increase member interaction and satisfaction, and your current marketing approaches to ensure your omni-channel approach is successful and identify areas of improvement.
Main conference content themes
The main conference on Thursday, June 23 and Friday, June 24 will spotlight four key themes, featuring targeted sessions with actionable takeaways:
CMS regulation updates
- Prepare for the new CMS face-to-face encounter requirement: The session, led by Eve Gelb, MPH, SVP, member and community health, SCAN Health Plan, and Melodie Farmer, population health quality manager, CareOregon, will discuss changes to the MOC that need to be made to ensure compliance with the new face-to-face encounter requirement from CMS that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2023 an action plan to have a face-to-face encounter with each member in advance of the effective date, which members of the interdisciplinary team are responsible for each encounter and the documentation that needs to be provided after the encounter, and which members would be best reached through a video call encounter and scheduled meetings in advance to meet the new requirement.
- Assess changes to MOC scoring guidelines for 2023: Attendees will learn about CMS adjustments for the MOC scoring guidelines and how they impact your current process. Gretchen Wagner, MA, CIA, CRMA, director, home compliance & risk management, healthcare services, Humana, and Caroline Wilson McDonald, principal, Prizm Health Advisory, LLC, will explore how to evaluate your current score for each factor of your MOC to identify if you are meeting the 50 percent threshold requirement, as well as the areas of improvement to ensure your organization is above the threshold on all factors to avoid costly complications.
The future of SNP
- Maximize your supplemental and SSBCI benefits for health and retention improvements: The session will focus on analyzing your current membership to identify which members would benefit from receiving Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI). Monica Pagels, senior product manager Medicare product oversight, Health Alliance Plan (HAP), and Lana Djordjevic, director, product development, DSNP, Priority Health, will explore which benefits are available that would most impact membership health improvement and the supplemental benefit and SSBCI offerings as marketing collateral to positively impact recruitment and retention efforts.
- Explore the transition from MMP plans to D-SNP: Will Dede, MPP, associate director, Health Policy, SNP Alliance, will lead a discussion around the key differences between Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MMP) and Duel Eligible Special Need Plans (D-SNP) to identify which areas will need to change, the key stakeholders, including the member advisory council, which will play a critical role in the transition, and how to implement an action plan for a seamless transition while meeting the requirements to become a D-SNP.
Post Public Health Emergency
- Families First Coronavirus Relief Act: Prepare for redetermination for Medicaid: Attendees will hear from Jim Milanowski, president and CEO, Genesee Health Plan, who will review the documentation processes needed to complete the redetermination for renewal of Medicaid for your membership, timelines that must be met to ensure quality of care for your SNP members, and how to implement an action plan to complete redetermination process and confirm Medicaid eligibility for all members.
- Public Health Emergency—Identifying what to keep: Speakers will assess changes that were implemented during the pandemic, which were new to how you originally operated, the success rate and benefits of keeping the new initiatives as part of your long-term plan for health care outcome improvement in the future, and how you can adapt the initiatives to maximize the outcomes for your membership.
Operational best practices for SNP
- Strategies to maximize interaction with homeless members: The session, led by Lauren Easton, MSW, I.C.S.W., vice president, integrative program development and clinical innovation, Commonwealth Care Alliance, will help attendees evaluate their current homeless membership and establish a team that will focus on creating encounters with them to complete health risk assessments and other assessments, which community based organizations and community institutions can help you in your goal of contacting hard-to-reach members, the new approaches that have been successful in communicating and marketing to the homeless population to improve operational outcomes, and how to use street medicine, pop up clinics, and medical support vans to offer medical attention and assessments when interacting with your homeless members.
- Maximize open enrollment to retain and increase membership: Djordjevic will return to the stage to spotlight how to capitalize on an omni-channel approach to marketing by utilizing data to show which marketing avenues offer the best return, the benefits and incentives offered to attract new members to join your plan, and retention issues through positive interactions with current members to entice them to remain with a plan that cares about them.
The Special Needs Plan Leadership Summit will be held live and in-person June 22-24 at the Westin Times Square in New York City. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required to attend. Click here to learn more, including the full agenda, how to register for the conference, and health and safety protocols.