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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Medicaid Risk Adjustment

By Jessica Thain


There are a number of people across the United States who are currently taking advantage of the Medicare Advantage plans offered through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. In order to properly determine the number and amount of payments to be given to the beneficiaries of these plans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have developed the Medicare risk adjustment model.

One of the most important parts of a effective Medicare risk adjustment is being able to appropriately predict the care costs of a patient connected to a particular disease. Currently Medicare gets its information from the patient's health plan in the form of claims data as the method for defining the payment for risk adjustment. This means that from the data gathered through the information given to Medicare by private health insurance companies is the main source of determining how much payment these private plans should receive to cover their member's likely health care costs.

Being able to correctly estimate what the cost of care for a particular plan member is likely to be, is an important part in creating a successful risk adjustment model. The Medicare risk adjustment model uses the information they gain through the patient's health plan and claims data as a way to develop the estimated cost. This means that the health insurance companies play an integral part in helping to keep the costs of the Medicare program accurate as it is the main source of information used to base the payments off of.

What this means is that an important role is played by the health insurance companies and their reporting of their clients health care. Health insurance companies plan a vital role in keeping the cost of the programs run by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid services accurate. There is so much information that is gained through claims reporting and is used as a way to base the risk adjustment numbers of Medicare that it is vital that reporting is done accurately by the health insurance and health care providers. Correct and detailed reporting is something that can help to create more accurate estimates and can help to lessen the number of errors.

Many of the errors that occur commonly within this model are because of the reporting that occurs throughout patient interactions and doctor visits. Also the amount of communication that happens between health care providers, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid as well as insurance companies is an important part as well. Many different benefits will be able to be realized through the use of high quality and accurate claims reporting and risk adjustment.




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