VNSNY’s Top 10 Achievements in 2019 and What They Mean for 2020
An Accomplishment-Filled Year Sets the Stage for Success Going Forward
“From start to finish, we had a really good 2019,” says VNSNY’s President and CEO Marki Flannery. “In this second year of our rolling three-year strategic plan, we made strong progress on every one of VNSNY’s strategic goals, including our overarching goal of achieving long-term financial sustainability. Thanks to everyone’s combined efforts, we came in $58 million ahead of budget last year! I want to thank everybody across the organization for helping us achieve this tremendous outcome.”
The challenge now, adds Marki, “is to take last year’s accomplishments and build on them in 2020, as we focus on continuing to improve our results, against the backdrop of New York State’s Medicaid budget cuts.”
Here are 10 of VNSNY’s key achievements in 2019, and what they mean for the organization in 2020 and beyond:
- VNSNY launched VNSNY Care360° Solutions, our care management organization.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
The launch of the organization’s first new business unit in 20 years puts VNSNY at the forefront of the growing care management field, in which people with chronic conditions are closely followed via phone and remote monitoring, with clinicians making targeted home visits as needed. VNSNY Care360° Solutions, which includes staff from VNSNY’s Population Health, Partners in Care and ESPRIT Medical Care divisions, is now managing over 500 CHOICE members, and also has contracts with two additional health plans and with an ACO.
- VNSNY Home Care successfully transitioned to PDGM, Medicare’s new payment methodology.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
On January 1st of this year, Medicare implemented the most significant change to its payment model in 20 years. Known as Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), this model cuts payment periods from 60 days to 30 days and places patients into one of 432 case-mix categories based on factors like clinical diagnosis and functional level. After spending most of the year preparing for the change, VNSNY’s transition to providing care under this model has gone smoothly, setting us up for a steady Medicare patient flow in 2020.
- Over 5,300 MLTC plan members shifted their enrollment from ICS to CHOICE MLTC.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
When Independence Care System (ICS) closed down their Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) plan last spring, New York State selected the VNSNY CHOICE MLTC plan as its first-choice replacement plan for ICS’s members. As a result, 93% of ICS’s total 2019 MLTC membership—over 5,300 former ICS members—chose to make the switch to CHOICE. This shift, along with CHOICE MLTC’s growth through other efforts, brought the CHOICE plan’s membership to around 20,000—an increase of 7,000 members for the year—making it the largest not-for-profit MLTC plan in New York State and one of the state’s three largest MLTC plans overall. The strong growth and performance of CHOICE MLTC sets the stage for the plan’s continued success in 2020, though this will depend in large part on decisions by New York State’s Medicaid Redesign Team regarding reimbursement levels for the state’s MLTC plans.
- VNSNY’s legislative outreach and analytics expertise led to a $50 million increase in our annual revenue.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
In a great team effort, staff from VNSNY CHOICE, Government Affairs and Data Analytics jointly convinced New York officials to modify the state’s risk-score methodology so that VNSNY is more appropriately reimbursed for the acuity of the populations we serve. That change resulted in a $50 million annual swing in VNSNY’s favor, which played a significant role in us performing better than budgeted in 2019. In general, VNSNY was very focused in 2019 on building positive relationships with our New York State regulators and legislators, which will help us work collaboratively with state officials to address budget issues and other key topics in 2020.
- CHOICE Health Plans received top quality ratings from New York State.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
VNSNY CHOICE Total, our Medicaid Advantage Plus (MAP) plan—a single plan that administers members’ Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care benefits, as well as drug coverage—received a best-in-state five out of five stars in the quality ratings awarded by New York State’s Department of Health in 2019. Additionally, our CHOICE MLTC plan received an outstanding rating of four out of five stars. Going forward, these excellent quality ratings will help attract additional plan members.
- VNSNY Hospice became the 7th-largest hospice in the United States.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
Thanks to a strategy that includes reaching out to underserved communities and local care providers, VNSNY Hospice has experienced steady growth over the past two years. With a current average census of approximately 1,300 patients per month, it is now the largest hospice program in New York State and the 7th-largest in the nation. That trajectory is expected to continue in 2020, extending VNSNY’s mission of caring for vulnerable New Yorkers while contributing to the organization’s financial sustainability.
- Partners in Care began rolling out the Care Connect and Sandata Mobile Connect smartphone apps to its HHAs.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
Following last year’s introduction of the Care Connect smartphone app, two-thirds of Partners in Care HHAs are now using the app, which lets them view and accept assignments in their area—giving them more control over their schedule, while freeing up Partners in Care phone lines for client calls. In addition, after a successful pilot, the Sandata Mobile Connect app, which lets HHAs electronically record and transmit client health information, has begun its rollout to the full HHA workforce. About one-quarter of Partners in Care HHAs have the app installed, and hundreds more are training on its use each week, with the goal of having all HHAs go through the training by the fourth quarter of 2020.
- CHOICE SelectHealth received approval to expand into Nassau and Westchester Counties.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
With the best viral suppression rate for HIV-positive members of any New York health plan in its category, CHOICE SelectHealth received approval last year from the state’s Department of Health to become the first Medicaid HIV special needs plan to operate outside New York City. This expansion will give over 1,000 eligible individuals in each county access to SelectHealth’s state-of-the-art provider network and member support services.
- IT enhancements: VNSNY moved all its software applications into the cloud, rolled out Workday and hired a new Help Desk vendor.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
The transition from VNSNY’s mainframe computer and move of VNSNY’s software systems to the cloud or to cloud-based service providers gives the organization more flexibility for implementing software upgrades. In addition, we are continuing to maximize Workday, our new user-friendly system for human resources, finance, and payroll. We also hired a new, more responsive IT Help Desk vendor, Unity BPO (which began operations last month).
- VNSNY began its “Culture of Hospitality” workshops.
What this means for VNSNY in 2020:
So far, over 800 staff members have attended these workshops. By focusing on the concepts of empathy, active listening, service recovery, and a “What can I do for you?” attitude, the workshops aim to improve interactions among VNSNY employees and between staff and the patients and plan members we serve. Feedback on the program has been extremely positive—it’s already resulting in improved customer service, and is expected to have an increasing impact on VNSNY’s culture as the rest of our staff attend the sessions in 2020.
