DMAA: Medicare Report Underscores Need for Chronic Disease CareWASHINGTON, DC—The 2006 Medicare Trustees Report, which predicts insolvency two years earlier than last year's outlook, underscores the need for effective measures targeting the program's costliest beneficiaries, especially those with multiple chronic diseases, DMAA Executive Director Tracey Moorhead said today. "The Trustees Report is troubling, both for our nation's seniors and the economic health of the country," Moorhead said of the May 1 annual report. "We must encourage strategies that lower costs and raise quality. Disease management and care coordination, we believe, do both." The Trustees predict Medicare will exhaust its Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by 2018, two years earlier than the panel estimated in its 2005 report. The Trustees Report likely will sharpen focus on Medicare's costliest beneficiaries: those with five or more chronic conditions. According to current estimates, those beneficiaries consume more than two-thirds of program spending. An ongoing, DMAA-supported federal pilot, Medicare Health Support, seeks to show improved quality of care and reduced costs through active chronic disease management for seniors. In a February statement hailing strong MHS enrollment, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan called chronic disease care, as provided under MHS, a "key priority for the future of Medicare" and an approach that can lead to "fewer complications and overall health care cost savings." "We, too, believe disease management can lower Medicare costs and contribute much to the program's long-term solvency," Moorhead said. "In light of the latest Trustees report, we can't emphasize strongly enough the critical need to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care to seniors living with chronic conditions." # # # About DMAA |
