Chronic Condition Special Needs Plans (C-SNPs) are a specialized type of Medicare Advantage (MA) plan targeted to beneficiaries with specific chronic conditions identified by CMS. With enrollment growth exceeding 150% since 2024, MA plans are increasingly turning to C-SNPs to manage high-cost, high-need populations and drive differentiated growth.
ATI’s latest resource draws on analysis of CMS enrollment data to map where C-SNP growth is happening and which populations and conditions represent the highest-value opportunities. The tool provides considerations for building a high-performing plan, walking through five critical decision points and a six-phase launch roadmap while identifying common pitfalls.
Recent Work
A Practical Option for States: One-Time Medicaid Reassignment to Support D-SNP Alignment
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.
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The Kim Frailty Index and Implications for LEAD ACOs
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."
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I-SNP Enrollment and Long-Term Care Outcomes in 2023
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.
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