AAFP Testifies to PPAC About Chronic Disease Management

WASHINGTON – Thomas J. Weida, MD, in testimony today before the Practicing Physicians Advisory Council (PPAC) about care for patients with chronic diseases, recommended establishment of a care management fee.

"Effective chronic care management involves developing a partnership with each patient, developing a care plan, ongoing communication and coordination of disparate systems to integrate their care, patient education resources and delivery systems, and more," explained Weida, AAFP vice speaker and a practicing family physician in Hershey, Pa. "This consumes additional physician time and resources and requires different models of delivering care. The current coding system does not adequately reflect this."

The current reimbursement coding system is designed to record individual office visits for each specific condition. However, more than 75 percent of the Medicare population experiences multiple chronic diseases. The AAFP requested PPAC's support in working with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to design and test the use of a care management fee.

"Family physicians are trained to simultaneously manage multiple chronic diseases using evidence-based guidelines, patient management tools and technologies while engaging other specialists and community resources as appropriate," said Weida.

PPAC is congressionally mandated and advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of CMS on proposed changes to regulations and carrier manual instructions.