Supporters of the Chronic Care Management Improvement Act
Quite a few healthcare organizations agree with Representative Neal. Chief among them are the American Medical Association, the American Diabetes Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the National Association of ACOs. Shortly after the bill was introduced in Congress, these groups wrote a letter of support to Rep. DelBene. In this letter, the group cited the positive patient outcomes their members had reported and stressed the need to reduce barriers to the program. One such barrier is patient responsibility. These organizations believe that their patients are missing out on an important program because of this requirement.
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) took their show of commitment one step further and sent a letter to the Chairman and the Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee. Since the program’s implementation, AAFP has urged Congress and CMS to remove patient responsibility from CCM . They argue that the elimination of cost-sharing requirements would increase involvement in the program. Their members have found that many patients are interested in CCM until they learn about the potential cost to themselves. AAFP believes that patient responsibility is the main barrier to broad utilization of Chronic Care Management