Choosing Chronic Care Management Resources? What to Consider

by Seller Ben Buisness

Since the introduction of the first CPT code 99490 in January 2015, chronic care management resources have been on the rise. Today there are four codes; 99487, 99489, 99490 and 99491. CMS is proposing to change them to G codes and adding more codes with different time and staff elements for Calendar year 2020 in their proposed Physician Fee Schedule.

They are now heavily adopted thanks to their efficiency in achieving The Triple Aim’s three focus areas:

Improving patient experience.

Reducing the per capita costs of health care.

Improving the health of populations overall.

The popularity of such resources is hitting the skiesas they find their way into every health care provider’s practice, hospitals, health plans and Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s).

While it is essential to get these solutions, it is also important that one does due diligence and proper research about them. It is not always easy to find an efficient system without following the right tracks. Be it medication treatment monitoring or chronic care management solutions, the conditions below must be considered beforehand.

Whether you want to improve your scores for Medicare star reporting system or upgrade your Chronic Care Management (CCM) system, read through for insights.

The CCM Resources Must Keep Patients Engaged

An effective and reliable CCM system should be designed to keep a patient engaged throughout. This will, in return, allow them to participate in the program in the long term while also giving them a chance to engage in their health management effectively.

In addition to giving patients’ improved health outcomes, an efficient chronic care management system should allow health centers to bill for them successfully. This is because all chronic care management resources can be billed every month but would still require minimum time each month to be spent performing such care.

The CCM Company Should Provide Results

The intended CCM Company should give proven results for every application. Since it is all about providing better care and getting improved patients outcomes, it should then increase the efficiency of the practice. When you are looking for CCM vendors, therefore, you should look for solutions that have proven results and evidence of patient and physician satisfaction.

The CCM Must Be Easy to Implement

It is not easy to have patients participate in a CCM that they are not likely to stay enrolled in for a long time. It is also difficult for clinical staff to implement such a resource, let alone run or scale it. In this case, it will be difficult for the doctors and staff to succeed in engagingtheirpatients as well as meeting the time requirements for each month.

It is, therefore, essential that when you choose a CCM company, you consider the level of support and technology. You should also check its scalability and ease of use and not just the pricing. To learn more about CMS's care Management Services, please visit

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/PhysicianFeeSched/Care-Management.html

To learn the latest about Chronic Care Management, please visit.

https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Medicare-Learning-Network-MLN/MLNProducts/Downloads/ChronicCareManagement.pdf