DHS Special Needs Purchasing and Third-Party Administrator announcement

Date: May 5, 2026
To: People who receive health care through Special Needs BasicCare (SNBC) and Minnesota Senior Health Options (MSHO), family members, advocates, lead agencies and other interested parties
From: DHS Special Needs Purchasing (SNP) team and Third-Party Administrator (TPA) team
Purpose: To provide an update to members who may be waiting their managed care enrollment or those who support members who receive managed care awaiting enrollment
Contact: SNP.Team.DHS@state.mn.us

Update: Integrated SNBC and MSHO enrollment processing delays

The Department of Human Services (DHS) continues to experience significant delays in processing enrollments for Minnesota Senior Health Options (MSHO) and Integrated Special Needs BasicCare (SNBC) due to the UCare health plan changes announced in December 2025. Unfortunately, DHS has also learned of processing delays at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which could further impact timelines. We are working closely with CMS to help minimize the delays.

DHS is now processing applications received in January 2026 for HealthPartners, Medica, PrimeWest, IMCare and South Country Health Alliance. If you are working with a person who submitted an application in December 2025 for any of these plans but who has not yet been enrolled, contact DHS using a managed care HPEN ticket.

DHS is still processing applications for Blue Plus received in December 2025. We will provide another update when we are processing Blue Plus applications for January 2026.

At this time, DHS cannot respond to individual inquiries about the status of a person’s pending MSHO or Integrated SNBC enrollment if the person submitted their application in January 2026 or later (with the exception of Blue Plus applications). However, if you have questions or concerns about a person’s current (not pending) enrollment, or the person is experiencing an urgent medical issue, submit a Managed Care HPEN ticket online. We will respond to these types of questions as we are able.

Note, while a person’s enrollment is still pending, the person will not lose access to their Medical Assistance or Medicare. However, they may be enrolled in a plan other than the one they selected until their enrollment application is processed. In some cases, the person will be automatically enrolled in Original Medicare and a stand-alone Medicare Part D plan. A person should not submit a new application while the person’s previous application is waiting to be processed. This will not speed up the person’s application and will add additional work to the current backlog.

Providers are responsible for checking a person’s current enrollment in MN–ITS and sending bills to the person’s current plan(s). Providers should not bill a health plan that the person is not currently enrolled in, even if that person has an application waiting to be processed.

DHS does not currently have a timeline for when enrollments will return to normal processing times. However, DHS is in the process of implementing a surge staffing plan for integrated enrollments that includes:

· A new arrangement that allows health plan staff to assist with retroactive enrollment processing for members enrolled in their health plan. While health plan staff have always been able to assist with prospective integrated enrollment processing, they are now able to assist DHS staff with processing the backlog of retroactive enrollments. 18 health plan staff have been trained to assist DHS as of mid-April.

· Additional DHS temporary staff hires who will assist the integrated enrollment team through the end of the year.

· Continuing overtime work from several DHS teams to support the integrated enrollment team.

· Continuing overtime work for the integrated enrollment team.