A Profile of Medicare-Medicaid Dual Beneficiaries

Beginning January 1, 2030, Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) enrollment must be fully aligned with Medicaid plan enrollment, and beneficiaries will no longer be able to stay in their current D-SNP. Building on a previous ATI resource, this brief outlines a transitional strategy for states subject to the impending D-SNP enrollment alignment requirements to consider.

The Kim Frailty Index (KFI) is a validated, peer-reviewed measure of frailty that uses only healthcare claims data to measure frailty with sufficient accuracy for population-level decision making. The CMS Innovation Center is embedding KFI data into its Long-term Enhanced ACO Design (LEAD) Model as one of the factors used to assess whether a beneficiary qualifies as "High Needs."

New research from ATI shows that in 2023, Institutional Special Needs Plan (I-SNP) enrollees had lower mortality risk and fewer emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and hospital readmissions than non-I-SNP MA beneficiaries. This brief investigates the association between I-SNP enrollment and mortality, healthcare utilization, spending, and quality outcomes for long-term care residents enrolled in Medicare who had one or more nursing facility stays of 90 days or longer during the year.