What do TV shows 60 minutes, Roseanne, designing women and murder, she all wrote in common? They were the top 10 Prime Time shows in the 1991 – 92 season according to Nielson Media Research. It is clear that what Americans want to view, has changed in 34 years. The fall in market share The most important networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – have experienced and the dramatic growth of streaming services proves the point. It makes sense to make people look at what they want to view on the device of their choice and use new technologies such as streaming services to gain access to the shows they want to view. It would be foolish for us to insist that Americans are only shown from the Legacy Networks on traditional TVs. But this is actually what we do now when we force Medicaid Managed Care Plans (plans) to comply with a Federal Law of 1991 when they communicate with Medicaid receivers.
Here is the problem. Federal legislation called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was established in 1991, makes it very difficult for states and plans to use SMS messages to communicate with their members, although SMSs are the primary and preference mode of communication for all Americans including Medicaid receivers. TCPA requires a status or plan that sends a text to have permission from the person receiving the text before the text is sent. Violations of TCPA result in significant financial fines for each violation, and penalties have tripled if the sender has knowingly and knowingly sent the text without permission.
Medicaid recipients are usually assigned to plans, they do not choose their plan, and as a result, in the light of TCPA, and possibly enormous financial fines that are assessed, plans have taken the position that they do not have permission from recipients to text them. And that’s the problem.
SMSs is the way in which most Americans communicate today. Other modalities such as US Mail (Snakmail called for a reason), phone calls (who calls more calls?) And e -mail (probably without reaction for days or weeks) are dramatically less effective. Because they have a low income, many Medicaid recipients often do not have a fixed line or a laptop. They rely on their mobile phone for all their communication, including healthcare -related communication. SMS is their preference, and often only the way to communicate.
As a founder and CEO for Samesky Health I have worked with plans for more than ten years to help them involve their members and navigate to health care at the right time and the right place. Time and again we discovered that when we could maneuver around the outdated limitations that TCPA had placed on plans, we got a higher involvement that translated into more good children’s visits, more breast cancer screens, more diabetes (A1C) screening, and so on. The use of modern communication tools is a way to meet people where they are. It builds trust and leads to better health results. But unfortunately we were unable to text members in most cases because of TCPA members.
What has been an important problem will be made exponentially worse when the federal work requirements are implemented, as it seems that it is likely. A federal work requirement from Medicaid will considerably increase the need to modernize how states and plans communicate with Medicaid recipients. Compliance with TCPA stands in the way of this modernization. And if it is not established, many people will lose their Medicaid -benefits for purely procedural reasons.
To improve health results, you must allow efficient communication to verify work status and provide recovery information twice a year, states and plans must be exempt from the outdated provisions of TCPA. Senate campaign OP and the final passage of the reconciliation legislation offers the best chance of getting an exemption from TCPA that has been assumed and signed in the law.
The time to act is now.
Laten we ons dus concentreren op (1) het verkrijgen van de vrijstellingstaal in de senaatsversie van de Verzoeningswetgeving, (2) werken met HHS en CMS om ervoor te zorgen dat postwetgevinggeleidingsstaten staten en plannen regisseert om te sms’en als best practice op te nemen als een best practice bij het implementeren van werknemers en (3) een mediastrategie implementeren voor het gebruik van moderne technologie om te gebruiken For Medica -for Medicaid recipients to be used for medicaid recipients.
We have two months – June and July – to take action about an exemption in the Senate and the rest of the year to influence the guidelines of the administration on programs for work requirements.
Medicaid beneficiaries will be the biggest winners if we succeed because an exemption is an important strategy to reduce unnecessary loss of Medicaid -benefits.
What can you do? Call your senator and ask them to support that states and plans communicate with Medicaid recipients. And share this blog post with your network.
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