As 2015 comes to a close, the Medicare Advantage Care Coordination (MACC) Task Force reflects back on the major events in care coordination for Medicare beneficiaries over the past year. From a Senate working group on chronic care to the robust activity of the task force, 2015 was a very exciting year for advances in care coordination.
In the spring, a bipartisan group of 348 members of Congress sent letters urging the Medicare agency to protect the nearly 17 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage. This came during the period when the Medicare agency announces proposed policies for Medicare Advantage and provides 45 days for stakeholders to comment. In addition to members of Congress, the CMC’s 2 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries also made their voices heard across the country to protect the innovative services and care coordination benefits these plans provide. Their voices joined a broad array of organizations urging Washington to protect seniors in the program.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) recognized the value of high quality care coordination in May when they announced a bipartisan working group focused on improving outcomes for people in Medicare with chronic conditions. The working group solicited input from health care stakeholders on how to improve care coordination for patients in Medicare and use new technologies and strategies to empower them and their primary care physicians to actively manage care.
This came on the heels of a new study conducted by the RAND Corporation that looked at the growing burden of chronic disease and the efforts by health plans to help patients with chronic illnesses. The study noted that health plans are tailoring their chronic care outreach and resources to better suit patient needs and clinical care coordinators are a key element of that strategy.
The MACC Task Force was also founded in May, with the mission “to identify and raise awareness of best-in-class care coordination practices and policies that have the potential to improve the health and well-being of Medicare beneficiaries.” The Task Force collaborated with leading aging, caregiver, patient, provider, and minority health organizations to launch a national campaign that seeks to collaboratively raise awareness around the gaps, best practices and possible solutions in care coordination that could improve the health of America’s senior and disabled citizens, and even save lives.
The task force held its first event in July, a congressional briefing on how care coordination improves the health of seniors that featured four founding members of the task force, as well as three Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.
In honor of Pain Awareness month in September, task force members Penney Cowan, Founder and CEO of American Chronic Pain Association, and Paul Gileno, Founder and President of U.S. Pain Foundation, co-authored an issue brief for the task force, entitled “Chronic Pain and Care Coordination: A Team Effort.” Since then, the task force has launched the Care for Us Project, a campaign to build awareness around best practices related to care coordination and disease management of specific chronic conditions prevalent among Medicare beneficiaries that has focused on multiple chronic conditions and diabetes to date.
Throughout the year, the Coalition for Medicare Choices (CMC) was active in communities across the country, holding round table discussions with CMC seniors and Members of Congress to discuss the benefits that Medicare Advantage provides them. The CMC also celebrated a major milestone in October, when it welcomed its two millionth member Bertha Shinn. A six-year cancer survivor and type 2 diabetic, Bertha joined the CMC to protect the choice that Medicare Advantage offers beneficiaries.
While people in Medicare have benefitted from great improvements in care coordination over the last year, there is still more work ahead to ensure seniors are living as healthy lives as possible. That’s why the task force is continuing its Care for Us Project in 2016 by focusing on cardiovascular care, chronic kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and asthma and allergic diseases, as well as mental illness. With 27 member organizations and counting, the task force is in an excellent position to reflect the diverse needs of seniors across the country when it comes to care coordination.
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