Chronic Disease Management

US Sees Highest Healthcare Spending But Worst Health Outcomes

February 1, 2023 - Despite spending the most on healthcare, the United States has the worst health outcomes among high-income countries, including the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic conditions, a study from the Commonwealth Fund found. Researchers used data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and...


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With More Chronic Disease Comes More Medical Debt

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Patients with chronic diseases face higher amounts of medical debt and are more likely to face adverse financial outcomes compared to patients with no chronic disease or just one diagnosis, according...

Risk-Based Alternative Payment Models Aid Chronic Disease Management

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Alternative payment models that put financial risk on healthcare providers improved care quality for patients with diabetes more so than fee-for-service and incentive payment programs, according to a...

Healthcare Merger Aims to Advance Value-Based Kidney Care

by Victoria Bailey

Three healthcare providers—Fresenius Health Partners, the value-based care division of Fresenius Medical Care North America, InterWell Health, and Cricket Health—have entered into a...

CMS Updates End-Stage Renal Disease APM, PPS to Address Health Equity

by Jacqueline LaPointe

UPDATED CMS has made changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) alternative payment model, ESRD Treatment Choices, to directly address health equity. The ESRD Treatment Choices (ETC) Model is...

OIG: Medicare Overpays for Chronic Care Management Services

by Jill McKeon

An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audit discovered that Medicare consistently overpaid for chronic care management (CCM) services, incurring millions in costs for Medicare and its...

CMS Expands Medicare Reimbursement for Home Dialysis, ESRD

by Jacqueline LaPointe

New and innovative home dialysis machines will soon qualify for additional Medicare reimbursement, according to the latest End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System (PPS) final...

Chronic Care Management Code Use Increases, But Uptake Still Lagging

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Providers are increasingly using chronic care management (CCM) codes to address care fragmentation issues for patients with multiple chronic conditions. However, utilization patterns among...

Amazon Launches Health Centers to Boost Employee Access to Care

by Samantha McGrail

Amazon and Crossover Health launched a healthcare pilot to establish local, convenient health centers near Amazon fulfillment centers and boost access to care for employees and their families. The...

CMS Finalizes 2020 Medicare Reimbursement Rates for Kidney Care

by Jacqueline LaPointe

CMS last Thursday finalized a rule that will bump the bundled Medicare reimbursement rate for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) providers by $4.06 in 2020 and create a transitional add-on payment...

CMS Opens Apps for Kidney Care Model, Delays Primary Care First

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Late last week, CMS started to accept applications for two new alternative payment models focusing on kidney and primary care, with the latter now facing a delayed implementation. Both the Kidney Care...

Chronic Disease Patients with Mental Health Disorders Cost More

by Jacqueline LaPointe

For chronic disease patients, having a mental health disorder was associated with higher healthcare costs and resource use, confirms a new study in JAMA Network Open. The study of hospitalization and...

CMS Proposes Mandatory APM for End-Stage Renal Disease

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Following President Trump’s Advancing Kidney Health executive order, CMS announced one mandatory and four voluntary alternative payment models (APMs) to address chronic kidney disease and...

Team-Based Care for Kidney Disease Saves Park Nicollet $1.2M

by Jacqueline LaPointe

End-stage renal disease comes with a hefty price tag for both patients and providers. But Park Nicollet Health Services, an integrated care system in Minnesota, found that a team-based care approach to...

AMGA to Reps: Pass CHRONIC Care Act to Aid ACOs, Team-Based Care

by Jacqueline LaPointe

AMGA recently pushed House Representatives to pass the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017, which would particularly support accountable...

Small Health System Achieves ROI with Asthma Management Clinic

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Asthma is one of the most expensive chronic diseases for providers, payers, and patients. But a recent study in the American Journal of Managed Care showed that a stationary pediatric asthma management...

AMA Backs CMS Diabetes, Legacy Value-Based Purchasing Changes

by Jacqueline LaPointe

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently commended CMS for several recommendations outlined in the recently proposed 2018 Physician Fee Schedule rule. The industry group particularly welcomed a...

Asthma Education Model Lowers Resource Use, Healthcare Costs

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Asthma education programs can help providers to significantly reduce unnecessary resource use and healthcare costs by boosting patient knowledge about chronic disease management, a recent American...

Senate Group Drafts Chronic Disease Management Payment Reform

by Jacqueline LaPointe

The Senate Finance Committee Chronic Care Working Group recently released a draft healthcare payment reform bill targeting chronic disease management programs and services, such as the Independence at...

Providers Save Healthcare Costs via Medication Adherence

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Developing chronic disease and population health management programs is key to achieving value-based care, but a new study in the American Journal of Managed Care found that the programs themselves must...