The CMS www.cms.gov Office of Minority Health and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy FORHP) within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) www.hrsa.gov, have introduced the connected care educational initiative to help Medicare beneficiaries with chronic care conditions.
The goal is to provide healthcare professionals with support to implement Chronic Care Management (CCM) programs. CCM was developed nationwide within fee-for-service Medicare to focus on racial and ethnic minorities as well as rural populations.
Two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries have two or more chronic conditions and one-third have four or more chronic conditions. Many healthcare professionals provide these patients with CCM which includes non-face-to-face services such as reviewing test results or coordinating with other providers.
However, healthcare professionals are not always aware of the separate payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and are not receiving the full separate payments that are now available for CCM services under Medicare Part B.
As part of the CCM initiative, CMS and FORHP within HRSA have developed new resources to help educate patients and provide information to healthcare professionals to include:
- A toolkit for healthcare professionals with detailed information about CCM that also included resources to help providers implement CCM
- A partner toolkit that includes downloadable resources and suggested activities to get involved in the Connected Care initiative
- Patient education resources that includes a poster and postcard that can be used in a clinical or community setting
Go to the CMS Office of Minority Health www.cms.gov/About-CMS/AgencyInformation/CMSLeadership/office_OMH.html, and to the HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth for information.