How to Get Medicaid Case Managers to Be More Highly Engaged With Clients

Have you recently gotten into a new engagement with a local Medicaid case worker?

Whether you’re new to Medicaid or working with a new case manager, here are some best practices to keep them involved and engaged in the care of your mutual clients. 

We’ll go over:

• Establish clear cadences and channels for communication.
• Share your collaborative interest in ensuring each client's well-being. 
• Educate and offer resources to promote a referral pipeline. 

Establish clear cadences and channels for communication.

You may have had some case managers who send a referral and care plan and remain hands-off after that point. This abrupt disconnect in communication severs a critical line of support for the client—and you, too. 

Before you accept a referral from a case manager, make sure to manage and set expectations for what your relationship is going to look like. A key differentiator your agency can use to set itself apart is to maintain tight-knit relationships with social workers and other case managers. 

This demonstrates that you care and you can manage how your relationship looks. Set up a monthly recurring call between you and all respective case managers to share updates on the client’s care, if there is a need for additional services that you can offer, or additional services they might need a referral for. 

If you have any concerns (or a caregiver notices something), make sure to bring them up in these calls. The case manager may have some best practices or context to share regarding the family that may shed light on how to proceed, or how to update the care plan.

Share your collaborative interest in ensuring each client’s well-being. 

When you work with a new client, make sure that their case manager knows your level of dedication to providing high-quality care. That extends beyond a caregiver showing up to the client’s house.

This means reviewing schedules and authorizations, ensuring that each client is using 100% of the hours they’re allowed to use. Some clients may forget how many hours they’re eligible for, or cancel a shift without adding the hours back for a different day. 

If you notice patterns in a client’s behavior, make sure that their case manager is aware. They might not know what is going on, or have a solution in mind. Either way, it’s in your benefit to share this information. It may also be helpful to pull care plan information and client reporting from your Medicaid agency software to prepare for these meetings, too. 

Something you might be interested in is putting together a Medicaid onboarding session for all case managers, a 30-minute informational session that details how home care works, what it does for clients, how it impacts case managers, and other housekeeping things (like other payer sources you work with, your on-call procedures, etc…) that may help familiarize them with how you operate your agency. 

This can help case managers get some behind-the-scenes understanding of the home care process and become more familiar with how to send referrals, identify clients who might need home care services, and more. 

Educate and offer resources to promote a referral pipeline.

While case managers may be familiar with specific chronic conditions or aging-in-place guidelines, clients and families may need some help. Create and distribute resources for case managers to take with them to new clients and families. 

Think about the conditions and skills that your caregivers are working with; create resources that can support families going through these situations. For example, if you have a lot of clients who were referred through a hospital because of a fall, you can put together a comprehensive guide on fall prevention and fall care. 

This helps to position you (and your business) as a thought leader and expert in fall prevention and care, while also relieving case managers of having to scrape together thoughts during a client’s home visit. 

When clients refer back to these pamphlets, brochures, presentations, and more, they will call your agency for assistance (whether it’s for themselves or a friend). The same applies to other referral sources as well, they may find these resources helpful, too. 

Build long-lasting, fruitful relationships with your Medicaid case managers. 

The best way to keep referral sources coming back again and again is to consistently deliver high-quality home care. And the best way to deliver consistent care is with a consistent care load. And the famous chicken and egg question comes full circle. 

When you can keep your case managers in the loop on how clients are doing, this will keep you top of mind, over other home care agencies in your area. Maintain your reputation—and your revenue at the same time.