Since last January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has reimbursed physicians for monthly expenses for chronic-care management of patients not conducted during a patient’s face-to-face visit with a physician.
The publication reports:
“Complaints about the chronic-care management reimbursement program vary from lengthy documentation to having to have a difficult conversation with patients who now are responsible for a 20% copayment for previously free services.
“Primary-care advocates hoped the care-management fee would transform some practices, encouraging them to invest in infrastructure and adopt a team-based model of care.”
But the numbers so far are very disappointing.
Still, the magazine, offering a few good examples of practices dealing with the reimbursement issue, holds out hope:
“Practices that approach care with a team effort have an easier time fulfilling the requirements needed to obtain reimbursement for chronic-care management.”
