By Evelin Viera, MSN, RN, CCM
The True Value of Investing in Your Superpower by Engaging in the Case Management Society of America
Both novice and seasoned case managers can gain a valuable boost in their personal and professional development portfolios by connecting with a professional case management organization during their career journey. Actively remaining engaged allows those in the industry to enhance their case management superpower. Members in a professional case management organization who stay involved readily expose themselves to best practices, professional development, peer networking and mentorship opportunities, volunteer board and committee opportunities, leadership growth within the profession, research, and advocacy. Strong mentorship programs and professional networks enhance identity formation by providing guidance, shared experiences, and professional growth opportunities (Bergman et al., 2025). COVID-19 hurt engagement with local chapters, despite the benefits outlined above. A longstanding local chapter with a strong membership history challenged its Engagement Committee to explore barriers and set a goal to grow its membership.
The Challenge
Professional case management organizations, such as the Case Management Society of America’s (CMSA) New England chapter (CMSNE), which has been around since 1989, have stood on the values of advancing the case management professional with education, advocacy, research, and a network of like-minded professionals. Continuous learning, peer support, and standardized professional identity elements drive long-term success and recognition in the field (Bergman et al., 2025). Additionally, strong mentorship programs and professional networks enhance identity formation by providing guidance, shared experiences, and professional growth opportunities (Bergman et al., 2025). However, awareness and engagement in membership organizations have declined in recent years due to a shift in the healthcare workforce and the abrupt inability to meet in person as an organization, in the aftermath of COVID-19.
At a time when the healthcare industry urgently needs strong case management leadership to drive critical outcomes—such as improved care coordination, enhanced clinical decision-making, increased patient satisfaction and engagement, reduced readmissions and lengths of stay, standardized best practices, and improved workforce retention with lower burnout—the number of professionals actively engaging with case management organizations is declining. This troubling trend comes despite the growing recognition that high-quality case management is essential to delivering effective, value-based care. The gap between the demand for results and the decline in professional engagement presents a serious challenge that must be addressed to ensure sustainable, high-performing healthcare systems.
Getting Started: The Engagement Strategy
In September 2024, CMSNE convened a group of professional case managers to develop an engagement and retention strategy that focused on engaging members and growing membership as part of the engagement committee. The membership baseline in October 2024 was three hundred twenty-nine (329). The committee set a goal of increasing membership by ten percent or three hundred and sixty-two members (362) in one year. The committee members met monthly, and the chair reported the monthly membership stats. The committee voted on the following engagement strategies to increase the membership. First, we would send an electronic peer-to-peer thank you letter to renewing members to encourage them to retain their membership. Second, we focused on sending out peer-to-peer letters to new members, welcoming them to our chapter and listing the benefits of joining the chapter as well as providing them with upcoming educational opportunities. Third, we contacted various corporate membership organizations to raise awareness and/or renew their current or previous company membership. We offered lunch and learning opportunities to case management leaders. We optimized two in-person conferences and offered discounts for same-day new membership registrations. In addition, we surveyed our members to evaluate how best to serve them. We also created a short testimonial video by a few of the committee members to raise awareness of the benefits of joining the local chapter. The video was published on the local chapter website and highlighted at virtual and in-person conferences. Lastly, we reached out to our lapsed members from our master membership database.
Lessons Learned
Over a ten-month period since the strategy began, we have provided outreach to a total of seven hundred and thirty-four (734) individuals during the implementation period between September 2024 and July 2025. The membership from baseline has remained favorably flat. We are confident that our committee’s efforts have delivered a meaningful return on investment. Through sustained outreach and engagement strategies, we have helped stabilize membership levels during a time when attrition could have been significantly higher. Without these proactive measures, we likely would have seen a sharper decline in both renewals and new member acquisition. Our work has been instrumental in maintaining connection and value for current and prospective members alike. The committee plans to continue this work and continue evaluating membership growth, explore new engagement strategies, and provide ongoing updates to inform our future work for membership sustainability. It takes a village to retain members in a professional organization—one that enhances the unique superpowers of case managers—and we are sincerely grateful to our community.
References
Bergman, E., Fink-Samnick, E., Morley, C., Parker-Williams, L., (2025, June 24-27), Professional Identify in Case Management: Exploring Case Manager’s Perceptions & Looking Forward. Case Management Society of America 2025 Annual Conference & Expo, Dallas, Tx, United States. (https://cmsa.org/conference/)
To learn more about the benefits of joining CMSA go to: https://cmsa.org/membership/
Author Bio: Evelin Viera, MSN, RN, CCM has been a member of CMSA for 5 years, serves as a board member and committee member for CMSNE for the past two years. She has thirty years of professional experience in community and public health nursing, and professional case management. Prior to joining CMSNE, Evelin was a guest panel presenter at two back-to-back annual CMSNE conferences. She worked as a case manager for a Medicare Pioneer ACO for many years before assuming the leadership role in case management as Director of Care Management to a model A, Medicaid Accountable Care Organization in northern Massachusetts. Currently, she serves as Medicaid, Manager of Care Management, at WellSense Health Plan, an affiliate of Boston Medical Center Health System and teaches community and public health nursing at Merrimack College as an adjunct faculty member.