2024 AEP – Now is the Time to Prepare!

It may seem early to start preparing for the 2024 Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), but after the Memorial Day holiday, the season comes quickly. Now is the time to prepare by—identifying your resource needs, updating your training programs, and planning for system changes. Don’t wait until July to start these activities; begin now to ensure…

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AEP 2023—Essential Readiness Tips & the Latest CMS Guidance

Medicare Advantage Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) runs from October 15 to December 7. Since most health plans recognize growth this time of year, it is imperative to be prepared to enroll members seamlessly and accurately. Are your systems configured with the latest guidance from CMS? Has your staffing and training efforts increased to ensure work…

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How to Produce AEP Documents & Manage Plan Benefits with Compressed Timelines

The second post in our AEP Best Practices series focuses on the critical path of the Annual Enrollment Period—how to produce AEP documents efficiently & manage plan benefits effectively with compressed timelines. It’s important to understand the risks and challenges with compressed timelines for health plans with several Plan Benefit Packages (PBPs). Here’s a graphic…

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AEP Enrollment Processing Tips—Do’s & Don’ts from End-to-End (E2E)

How well your organization handles a new enrollment during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) generally sets the tone for the upcoming contract year for you and your new member. Beginning with Sales and flowing to Enrollment Operations—it’s critical to understand specific actions that trigger reconciliation challenges and member abrasion. With CMS shifting the weight of…

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AEP Best Practices – How to Produce Compliant & Effective Member Communications

Planning for AEP (Annual Enrollment Period) As health plans prepare for AEP (Annual Enrollment Period), they face a multitude of challenges—ranging from compliance issues to mitigating risk related to timing, data, and documents. To help navigate these challenges, here are some key strategies and Best Practices for Compliant and Effective Member Communications we recently shared…

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4 ways to reduce – or eliminate – errors in your ANOCs and EOCs

The accuracy of Annual Notice of Changes (ANOC) and Evidence of Coverage (EOC) documents is an important requirement for all health plans. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) takes errors in these documents very seriously and penalties are given to health plans that distribute documents with errors. CMS recently announced changes to the…

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Are you Outsourcing your ANOC and EOC Creation to the Best People for the Job?

Preparing materials for the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) – namely Annual Notice of Changes (ANOC), Evidence of Coverage (EOC), and Summary of Benefits (SB) documents – can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive process wrought with compliance risk. As a result, many health plans opt to outsource the creation of these documents to a third-party vendor. There…

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6 Traits of a Great Consulting Partner

In the world of Medicare and Medicaid, choosing a consulting partner to help streamline your health plan’s operations can be tricky. While a company or individual may be well-versed in best practices for project management or operational efficiency, they may not understand the unique requirements of the payer market – making them less than effective…

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Start Now for an Easier ANOCs and EOCs Creation Season Next Year

Every year, the people who produce marketing materials for their Medicare members are extremely busy from April through September. Deadlines are tight and timelines are aggressive for creating, printing and mailing the Annual Notice of Changes (ANOCs), Evidence of Coverage (EOCs) and Summary of Benefits (SBs) documents. Very few people in these roles take vacation…

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How Accurate ANOCs and EOCs can Help Health Plans Retain Members

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation recently published an Issue Brief on its website titled “Medicare Advantage Plan Switching: Exception or Norm?” The brief shared that 11 percent of Medicare Advantage plan enrollees in 2013 voluntarily switched to another plan in 2014. It also addressed various factors that impacted switches to other plans, such as…

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