Six Great Things That Happened at ACAP in 2024

Happy New Year! As we prepare to embark on 2025, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on 2024, and all that we accomplished and celebrated at the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) .

Here’s to building on our successes and working towards continued growth and strength for our Association and in our nation’s health care safety net in the year ahead!?

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1: ACAP Advocates for Better Care, Better Clarity, Lower Costs in Medicaid?

As Medicaid prepares to enter its 60th year, ACAP shared recommendations to enhance the stability, effectiveness, and responsiveness of the program.?

Keeping Medicaid’s Promise: Recommendations for Medicaid at 60 offers strategies to stabilize Medicaid coverage, enhance care delivery, and improve clarity of performance data. Among the recommendations are:?

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• Ensuring more stable coverage?

• Providing better care?

• Promoting better clarity?

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Learn more >>?

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2: ACAP Advocacy Leads to Final Rule Limiting Junk Insurance?

After years of fierce advocacy by ACAP, including leading a 2018 lawsuit, the Biden Administration addressed the issue of predatory short-term, limited-duration insurance (STLDI) plans by issuing a final rule in March.?

The rule offers consumers protections against “junk insurance” plans, including:?

• An initial coverage term limited to 3 months, and renewable for up to 1 additional month;?

• Limits on stacking within a 12-month period, renewal guarantees, and new coverage guarantees; and?

• Improved consumer notice and disclosure requirements.?

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Learn more >>?

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3:? ACAP Shares Policy Recommendations on Coding Intensity Options in Medicare Advantage?

An ACAP report released this fall highlighted why policy changes to Medicare Advantage (MA) coding intensity must reflect the diversity of plans in the D-SNP and MA-PD space and emphasized that effective coding intensity policies must balance achieving policy goals for accurate MA spending while also accounting for the heterogeneity in the MA and D-SNP markets.?

Coding Intensity Options: The Perspective of Safety Net Health Plans, shares policy recommendations and options for consideration, including:?

• Continuing to allow D-SNPs to submit diagnostic codes obtained through HRAs and chart reviews;?

• Assessing model enhancements to improve the accuracy of the MA risk-adjustment model and reduce reliance on annual diagnostic capture; and?

• Evaluating the feasibility and impact of adding SDOH-related metrics to the MA risk-adjustment model.?

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Learn more >>>?

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4: ACAP’s StayCovered.org Redetermination Campaign Sends 130,000+ to CMS?

ACAP’s StayCovered.org campaign, initially launched in fall 2023, continued on into 2024.? ? Aimed at supporting in the then-ongoing Medicaid unwinding, the campaign was aimed at families with the goal of assuring that all eligible children received the 12-month continuous coverage legally afforded to them.? ? This multi-state, multi-media public awareness effort was grounded in digital and out-of-home advertising in English and Spanish and focused on four states with high numbers of children being disenrolled from Medicaid: Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The campaign generated some 18.4 million digital impressions and directed more than 130,000 to StayCovered.org - and, in turn, CMS.gov- to determine whether their children still qualify and update their contact information if needed.? ?

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5: ACAP's Center for SDOH Innovation Celebrates Year 3?

The successes of ACAP’s Center for SDOH were celebrated in 2024.??

In the three years since the Center’s launch, it has grown into a valuable platform for Safety Net Health Plans to learn from subject matter experts and one another. In the field of SDOH, our member plans go beyond not only the public perception of what a health plan does, but what health care is thought to be. It’s more than medicine.??

The social drivers of health include food, housing, employment, education, and more. In spotlight reports, two member plans - Sentara Health and Banner Health Plans detailed the ways in which they are supporting the SDOH of their members.?

Learn more >>?

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6: ACAP Welcomes New Plans, New Staff?

And last, but certainly not least, ACAP continued to grow in 2024, welcoming new member plans and staff members to the family.?

This year we welcomed:?

• Dell Children’s Health Plan: Led by CEO Sara Daugherty MSN, CHIE , Dell Children’s offers local care in Central Texas through the Children’s Health Insurance Program and State of Texas Access Reform Medicaid programs. The health plan includes coverage from 1,200 primary care doctors and 3,500 specialists for children up to age 20, pregnant women and new moms.?

• MedStar Health Family Choice: Led by plan president, Jocelyn Carter, JD , MedStar Family Choice is a provider-sponsored Managed Care Organization servicing the District of Columbia and Maryland.??

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We were also thrilled to welcome three new members to ACAP’s staff:?

• María Cecilia Gudi?o joined as Program Associate for Marketplace?

• Peter Olsen-Phillips serves as Medicaid Policy Manager?

• Maya Valadez, MPH is ACAP’s Program Associate for Medicare and MLTSS?

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Learn more >>?

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Looking Ahead to 2025?

ACAP’s 84-member Safety Net Health Plans, our trusted partners, and dedicated team ensured that 2024 was a year to be remembered. As we look ahead to the next 12 months – and ACAP’s 25th year strengthening our nation’s safety net, I remain inspired and eager to work to ensure that health care continues to improve for the more than 30 million people our plans serve nationwide.?

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