Home Health & Hospice Week

Will disease management find a happy home in Medicare? A three-year demonstration project from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aims to find out. CMS has invited DM organizations to submit proposals to manage the health care of beneficiaries with certain chronic conditions, according to a Feb. 28 Federal Register notice. Participating organizations will receive capitated payments for all Medicare-covered Part A and Part B services provided under tailored programs for conditions such as stroke, congestive heart disease and diabetes. CMS already has initiated a number of DM demo projects in the past few years, and plans to launch more addressing end-stage renal disease and disadvantaged populations, the agency says in a release. It expects information technology, improvement of care processes and patient outcomes to be main components of this demonstration. And disease management for diabetes may be sorely needed, according to a recent study from the American Diabetes Association. The annual cost of diabetes in medical expenditures and lost productivity climbed from $98 billion in 1997 to $132 billion in 2002, says an ADA study published in the March issue of Diabetes Care. The direct medical costs of diabetes more than doubled in that time, from $44 billion in 1997 to $91.8 billion in 2002. Interested parties have until May 28 to submit proposals for the Medicare DM project.