Messagepoint enables Medicare Advantage Organizations to turn around CMS late memo changes across hundreds of plans in hours

On Aug 22, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memo requiring corrections to model language in key Medicare Advantage Organization (MAO) plan documents, including the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) and Evidence of Coverage (EOC). With just over a month left until the September 30th deadline to send ANOCs to enrollees, the late timing of this memo adds significant pressure to document teams who are deep into preparations for the upcoming Annual Enrollment Period (AEP).

While the changes specified in the memo this year are not extensive, consisting mainly of minor corrections to language and small updates to cost-sharing charts, for MAOs with dozens or hundreds of plans, the effort to turn changes around can be excruciating. Reliance on legacy document generation solutions or Microsoft® Word® makes incorporating these updates far from straightforward. Plan documents managed using these approaches are siloed, distinct files, requiring team members to manually apply updates to each affected set of individual plan documents one by one. This process is not only labor-intensive but also significantly increases the risk of human error, potentially leading to errata and fines for non-compliance. For MAOs managing hundreds of plans, this adds up to hundreds of hours wasted on redundant work, exacerbating the stress on teams already under pressure during the AEP.

Translating these documents is also a challenge. Because late memos from CMS are typically released in late July or early August, many MAOs using legacy systems delay starting translation until the memo is issued to avoid having to redo the translated documents. Since this year’s memo came later than expected, these organizations now face a very compressed timeframe to perform QA, gather required approvals, and then move to translation. In addition, translation vendors will likely charge extra for the rush, and document teams will have to work overtime to ensure their documents are finalized in time.

CMS Late Memo Changes completed in hours with Messagepoint

Messagepoint’s customers are in a completely different position. Users of our cloud-based platform had all required changes completed in less than one business day after they were published at 4:15pm – taking mere hours to apply the changes for several of the largest MAOs with the biggest plan counts in the market. This fast turnaround is made possible by Messagepoint’s unique content-centric approach, where common content components can be shared and reused across multiple documents while being centrally controlled from a single point of change.

For example, one of the required changes was adding the cost share for inpatient hospital stays to the Summary of Important Costs chart in all ANOCs. Users only had to update this shared content object once, and the change was dynamically applied across all ANOCs.

Unlike the MAOs who delay starting translation, Messagepoint customers started early because they were able to translate documents in pieces rather than waiting for the entire English document to be finalized. Any updates made to the English versions of the content objects required users to retranslate only the affected content object, not the entire document. This not only frees up more time for translation but also gives document reviewers more time to perform QA, reducing the risk of errors and alleviating stress on teams during the review process.

The late memo could have turned into a stressful, time-consuming hurdle, but with Messagepoint’s highly efficient platform, the required updates only took a few hours from start to finish. Combined with the pre-built starting points for CMS model documents that customers automatically receive at the beginning of the AEP, Messagepoint can save up to 65% of the work associated with implementing annual CMS changes.

Modular content management and advanced sharing are the key

The latest CMS memo is a reminder that changes can come at any time, often when MAOs are already stretched thin, as seen in 2023 for AEP 2024, when required updates were issued just days before the submission deadline. While you can’t control the timing or scope of these changes, you can be prepared with the right tools. With Messagepoint, you can eliminate the stress and inefficiencies of manual processes and legacy systems, ensuring your team is always ready—no matter what CMS throws your way.

Download “Top 20 Questions to Ask When Vetting a Document Management Solution for Medicare Plan Materials” to see how your document generation solution stacks up against modern platforms like the Messagepoint Healthcare Touchpoint Exchange.