Medicaid program seeks to improve customer service

Wisconsin’s Medicaid program is working to improve consumer experience, Medicaid Director Bill Hanna said Monday. 

A survey from consulting firm McKinsey and Company found Wisconsin has the highest ranking among states for individuals’ experience with Medicaid eligibility, but just 46 percent of people are highly satisfied, Hanna noted.  

“There is room for us to grow,” he said at the annual enrollment conference held by Covering Wisconsin, an agency that helps people find health insurance coverage. 

One way DHS is doing that is through what its staff “affectionately call the pizza tracker,” which will allow people to know the status of their Medicaid application, Hanna said.

“Nowadays, everybody wants to know where we are in the process,” he said. “You order something from a pizza shop or from DoorDash, you see where you are in the process, and you get an update when your order's been received, when your order's been picked up, when the driver is approaching. We are doing something similar in our Medicaid application.” 

That will help with transparency and reduce call volume, so workers can spend more time processing cases. 

DHS is also using technology to improve document processing, help caseworkers search policy manuals and aid customers in finding consistent and reliable information. 

An additional emphasis has been on “courteous employees,” Hanna said.

In particular, Milwaukee Enrollment Services has put a major focus on customer service. The income maintenance agency that helps people sign up for Medicaid coverage previously had multiple one-star Google reviews. It now has a 4.3 rating. 

DHS is also working to better engage Medicaid members between the ages of 19 and 26 who have higher procedural disenrollment rates, meaning they lost coverage because they failed to return needed information or documentation to confirm eligibility. 

Part of the issue is an “information gap” due to public awareness that children can stay on their parents' health plan until they turn 26, Hanna said. That’s not the case for Medicaid, where children have to apply on their own once they turn 19.

“We haven't done a great job of making sure those individuals — those young adults and their families — understand that there is a step that they have to take when they turn 19,” he said. 

The pandemic compounded that issue as the Medicaid program kept people on its rolls regardless of age changes. DHS is in the process of reaching out to young adults who were procedurally disenrolled as that policy wound down and is sending around 2,500 letters to people in that age group every two weeks.

Going forward, DHS plans to continue sending letters to those who are aging out as well as their families.

“There’s nothing like mom to get you to do that work to make sure you maintain that eligibility,” Hanna said. 

Rebecca Easland, deputy insurance commissioner, spoke at the conference too. She said the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance is working closely on challenges posed by “bad actors” who are inappropriately signing Medicaid-eligible individuals up for individual coverage, in the wake of the program unwinding its continuous enrollment policy. 

Inappropriate enrollments are “often driven by out-of-state agents and brokers.” 

“We are taking action, where appropriate within our regulatory authority, to ensure that consumers in Wisconsin aren't harmed,” Easland said. 

Wisconsin hospitals improve on quality measures, says WHA report

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reports that 28 healthcare measures it tracks through its quality data reporting website improved compared to last year, including a reduction in catheter-associated urinary tract infections and acute stroke incidents. 

The two measures fell by 26.7 percent and 39.7 percent, respectively, according to a WHA report released Monday. 

Patient experience scores for discharge instructions also ranked best in the nation. 

The top 10 percent of Wisconsin hospitals show patient experience results up to 15 percent higher than hospitals nationwide. 

“Our hospitals and health systems are dedicated to leveraging data and innovative quality initiatives to drive significant improvements in patient care and community health,” WHA CEO Eric Borgerding said in a statement.

The report also notes that 68.7 percent of Wisconsin hospitals have received four- and five-star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, greater than the 40.3 percent with the ratings nationally.