Why Staff Training Now More Than Ever Makes Sense for Managed Healthcare Plans
What are managed healthcare leaders talking about? Certainly at the top of the list is caution and concern about legislative changes in the existing Affordable Care Act, and how Medicaid funding to states may change. Runaway drug costs are also prompting calls from legislators, health plans, and the citizenry, for more pricing transparency and accountability. Change is a certainty, the degree of change is still unfolding.
Medicaid – Shrink or Grow?
Health plans face a future filled with even more demands to do more with less. In a recent NPR interview, a California-based health plan CEO expressed an opinion that states may turn to health plans even more to help them as they manage with less with the remainder of their Medicaid population. Short-term growth in contracts with states might be in store for health plans if this holds true.
Managed Healthcare Plans Training Solution
Despite turmoil and uncertainty, a number of managed healthcare organizations have partnered with the CSU Institute for Palliative Care and its Care Excellence program to prepare their case management staff now for an uncertain future. Care Excellence’s three levels of training – Foundational, Advanced Concepts and Leadership – to equip care managers with the training to perform their jobs well.
One Health Plan’s Experience
For example, a health plan that covers 1.2 million lives enrolled its case managers in the Institute’s Care Excellence series of Foundational courses. Up to 73 hours of fully online coursework provided a comprehensive, shared perspective on the fundamentals of case management, best practices, and where case management fits within the broader healthcare system.
This organization chose to facilitate the training by gathering care managers into smaller groups who completed the training simultaneously. With this turn-key training solution, organizational leaders were able to focus on extracting key areas needing improvement, then facilitating group discussions to deepen the learning and application within their environment. They’ve told us they’re seeing the payoff now, with staff exhibiting more confidence and competence in handling complex and challenging members’ situations.
Care Excellence Curriculum Enhances Leadership Skills
The Care Excellence third level of training, the Leadership Series, consists for four days of face-to-face work-shop style meetings held within organizations interested in developing their leaders. The curriculum was designed to enhance supervisors’ skill sets for effectively supervising and mentoring current staff, improving practices for selecting and onboarding new staff, while improving staff satisfaction and decreasing burnout and turnover. The focus concludes with creating an environment that fosters innovation and collaboration; all key leadership competencies needed during times of turmoil and change. A recent participant shared that he was promoted in his organization, another benefit gained by one who completed the series.
Population Health Management and the Triple Aim
Healthcare organizations nationwide are faced by with challenges of improving population health, improving the patient experience, and reducing cost – The Triple Aim. Care Excellence courses can help organizations, and the people who work within them, gain essential skills for chronic condition management, for improving patient experiences, and for reaching cost goals. To learn more about the full series of Care Excellence courses, visit careexcellence.org.