Medicare's Chronic Care Management Program: Will It Help Primary Care Survive?
Authors: Fitzhugh C. Pannill
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2015)

Editorials20 October 2015Medicare's Chronic Care Management Program: Will It Help Primary Care Survive?Fitzhugh C. Pannill III, MDFitzhugh C. Pannill III, MDFrom University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M15-1992 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail In 1927, Francis Weld Peabody declared that “the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient” and acknowledged that “time, sympathy and understanding must be lavishly dispensed” (1). This time commitment is more obvious today, especially for the one third of Medicare patients with 4 or more medical problems (2). Coordination and management of their care are suboptimal, given that Medicare does not pay for time spent on the telephone calls, e-mails, and faxes required. These “out-of-visit services” consume more than 20% of primary care providers' time (3). The need for reimbursement has been recognized ...References1. Peabody FW. The care of the patient. JAMA. 1927;88:877-82. CrossrefGoogle Scholar2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Chronic Care Management Services. Baltimore: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; 2015. Accessed at www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNProducts/Downloads/ChronicCareManagement.pdf on 20 August 2015. Google Scholar3. Chen MA, Hollenberg JP, Michelen W, Peterson JC, Casalino LP. Patient care outside of office visits: a primary care physician time study. J Gen Intern Med. 2011;26:58-63. [PMID: 20811956] doi:10.1007/s11606-010-1494-7 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Anderson GF. Medicare and chronic conditions. N Engl J Med. 2005;353:305-9. [PMID: 16034019] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Report on Health Information Blocking. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2015. Accessed at www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/reports/info_blocking_040915.pdf on 20 August 2015. Google Scholar6. Landon BE. Structuring payments to patient-centered medical homes. JAMA. 2014;312:1633-4. [PMID: 25335142] doi:10.1001/jama.2014.9529 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar7. Edwards ST, Landon BE. Medicare's chronic care management payment—payment reform for primary care. N Engl J Med. 2014;371:2049-51. [PMID: 25427110] doi:10.1056/NEJMp1410790 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar8. Basu S, Phillips RS, Bitton A, Song Z, Landon BE. Medicare chronic care management payments and financial returns to primary care practices. A modeling study. Ann Intern Med. 2015;163:580-8. doi:10.7326/M14-2677 LinkGoogle Scholar9. Bayliss EA, Balasubramianian BA, Gill JM, Stange KC. Perspectives in primary care: implementing patient-centered care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic medical conditions [Editorial]. Ann Fam Med. 2014;12:500-3. [PMID: 25384810] doi:10.1370/afm.1725 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar10. Friedberg MW, Chen PG, Van Busum KR, Aunon FM, Pham C, Caloyeras JP, et al. Factors affecting physician professional satisfaction and their implications for patient care, health systems, and health policy. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation; 2013. Accessed at www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR439.html on 20 August 2015. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut.Disclosures: The author has disclosed no conflicts of interest. The form can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M15-1992.Corresponding Author: Fitzhugh C. Pannill III, MD, Southbury Medical Associates, Suite 201, 22 Old Waterbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488; e-mail, [email protected]com.This article was published online first at www.annals.org on 22 September 2015. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoMedicare Chronic Care Management Payments and Financial Returns to Primary Care Practices Sanjay Basu , Russell S. Phillips , Asaf Bitton , Zirui Song , and Bruce E. Landon Medicare Chronic Care Management Payments and Financial Returns to Primary Care Practices Sanjay Basu , Russell S. Phillips , Asaf Bitton , Zirui Song , and Bruce E. Landon Metrics Cited byU.S. Health Policy and Practice: The Doctor of Nursing Practice and Patients With Multiple Chronic Conditions 20 October 2015Volume 163, Issue 8Page: 640-641KeywordsComputed axial tomographyConflicts of interestDisclosureElectronic medical recordsHospitalistsInformation storage and retrievalInformation technologyMedicareNursesPatients ePublished: 20 October 2015 Issue Published: 20 October 2015 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2015 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...