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Aligning Implementation Milestones: A Major Key to a Seamless Medicare Advantage Launch


Successful Medicare Advantage (MA) implementation depends on more than just hitting deadlines—it requires alignment across all health plan verticals. When timelines are misaligned, organizations risk delayed testing, inaccurate benefit setup, and major operational gaps that can disrupt member experience and compliance readiness.


Why Implementation Milestone Alignment Matters

Many plans and vendors operate on different launch schedules.  This creates disjointed inefficient work at best and roadblocks and delays in critical areas at worst:


  • Will enrollment data be available for vendors and internal systems testing?

  • Will prior authorizations and final benefits be available for claims testing?

  • Will vendors be ready to test interfaces and needed data transfers such as Maximum Out of Pocket (MOOP) calculations.


Implementation Readiness Goes Beyond Project Management

While timeline coordination is a key project management function, true implementation success depends on ensuring operational milestones align across all departments. It isn’t just a work plan comparison, but an understanding of all the interacting components, upstream and downstream, that impact getting to a milestone.  A structured operational gap assessment allows early identification of missed functions and subsequent new milestones or can identify misalignment early and allow teams to course-correct before issues arise.


How MA Plans Can Avoid Pitfalls

  • Proactively Identify Gaps: Conduct an operational gap assessment early in the process to pinpoint missing functions that will impact milestones.

  • Establish Cross-Functional Milestones: Align implementation activities across IT, operations, clinical teams, and vendor partners.

  • Evaluate vendor timelines to ensure reasonableness and alignment.  Vendors who ask for final benefits before reallocation occurs could be setting your organization up for a contractual challenge.

  • Hold Vendors Accountable: Ensure third-party partners are flexible in their timelines to allow for alignment of implementation schedules to avoid downstream testing issues.


At Rebellis Group, we are collaborating with MA plans on implementation planning and operational assessments to help them streamline processes and prevent costly delays. If your team is navigating an upcoming launch, let’s discuss how to align milestones for success.  If you are considering launching a new MA plan, let us complete a readiness assessment to identify gaps to set your launch on the best trajectory.




 
 
 
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