Nearly two years after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched CPT code 99490, many physician practices, especially smaller ones,  still haven’t  launched chronic care management (CCM) programs, thus giving up a lot of money.

CMS says that of the 35 million Medicare patients eligible for CCM programs, the agency has only received reimbursement requests for about 100,000 patients.

What might be scaring the practices: A CCM program can be resource- and labor-intensive to start and  patients may bear some costs  in the form of co-pays for services provided between point-of-care visits.

Still,  for a practice not to launch risks losing  it tens of thousands of dollars per month in value-based reimbursements as Medicare payment reform and its Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) goes into effect soon (unless the Trump administration gets in the way). And, Medical Economics notes, many of the feared challenges to launching a CCM program can be overcome at relatively modest costs and effort with the help of a partner.”

To read the Medical Economics article on this, please hit this link.