Home Health & Hospice Week

Keep an eye on a new Medicare primary care-focused demonstration project, which may affect hospice providers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will test the Making Care Primary (MCP) Model in eight states starting next summer, CMS says in a release.

“The goal of the Making Care Primary Model is to improve care for people with Medicaid and Medicare,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says in the release. “This model focuses on improving care management and care coordination, equipping primary care clinicians with tools to form partnerships with health care specialists, and partnering with community-based organizations, which will help the people we serve with better managing their health conditions and reaching their health goals.”

The specialists with which clinicians may partner include hospices. “Participants will build their care management and chronic condition self-management support services, placing an emphasis on managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and reducing unnecessary emergency department (ED) use and total cost of care,” CMS notes.

More info on the MCP Model is at https://innovation.cms.gov/innovation-models/making-care-primary.