policy

April 21, 2017

The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch
Chairman, Senate Finance Committee
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-6200

The Honorable Ron Wyden
Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-6200

Dear Chairman Hatch and Senator Wyden,

The Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) is writing to express our strong support for the provisions related to Medicare Advantage Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) in S.870, the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017.

ACAP is an association of 60 not-for-profit, community-based Safety Net Health Plans located in 26 states. Our member plans provide coverage to almost seventeen million individuals enrolled in Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicare Advantage Dual-Eligible SNPs. Nationally, ACAP plans serve almost half of all Medicaid managed care enrollees. Twenty-four of our plans are D-SNPs, and 14 of our plans participate in the Financial Alignment Demonstration, accounting for over 30 percent of all enrollment in the Demonstration.

ACAP strongly supports permanent authorization of D-SNPs and commends the Senate Finance Committee for including permanent authorization in S.870. D-SNPs can tailor their care management, provider interventions, and partnerships with community-based organizations to the unique needs of their dual-eligible enrollees. D-SNPs have been reauthorized numerous times, but only in a series of short-term extensions, and are currently authorized through the end of 2018. The lack of a long-term authorization destabilizes the program for beneficiaries, states, health plans, and providers. ACAP supports permanent authorization of D-SNPs because doing so would provide certainty to plans, beneficiaries, and states and would foster longer term partnerships and investments in care management and integration with Medicaid. We also commend the Committee for defining an integrated D-SNP in a way that reflects the numerous ways in which states work with D-SNPs to integrate Medicare and Medicaid benefits for dual-eligible beneficiaries.

ACAP is prepared to assist with additional information, if needed. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact Christine Aguiar Lynch at (202) 204-7519 or clynch@communityplans.net.

Sincerely,

/s/
Margaret A. Murray Chief Executive Officer

cc: Members, Senate Committee on Finance