Medicare Chronic Care Management Code:
Stepping Stone to Medical Home, ACO
For physician practices yet to embrace a patient-centered medical home or accountable care organization (ACO), the new Medicare Chronic Care Management (CCM) code offers another benefit besides added revenue: the chance to test-drive a value-based healthcare delivery model.  Billing via the new CPT code 99490 is "an opportunity for practices to develop the infrastructure to become a medical home or to participate in an ACO," noted Nicole Liffrig Molife, counsel with Arnold & Porter during a February 2015 webinar, Chronic Care Management Reimbursement Compliance: Overcoming Obstacles and Meeting Requirements.
In case you missed this webinar, you still have a chance to watch this highly-rated program. Register to view the conference today or order your training DVD or CD:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=5010 You can "attend" this program right in your office and learn the inside details on: CCM requirements and eligible professionals; employer arrangements; patient consent, including retroactive consent; care coordination services; documentation of clinical staff activities; practice capabilities; the care plan; EHR use; potential business opportunities; and legal risks. The law firm, which counts the American Geriatric Society among its clients, has closely monitored the development by CMS of the CCM code, which reimburses practices for select non face-to-face care coordination tasks previously bundled into Evaluation and Management (E&M) codes. "[CMS] has been pretty explicit...that they conceive of this code as a transition toward an alternative payment model," added Paul Rudolf, MD, a partner with Arnold & Porter. The transitions seems inevitable, given the federal payor's aggressive timeline for transitioning Medicare payments to value-based models announced in January. Transforming themselves via this added CCM payment would jump-start development of the technology, communications and staff required for practices to provide complex, coordinated care management for Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions, said Dr. Rudolf, a former practicing physician�activities at the heart of patient-centered healthcare models. It's so convenient! Invite your staff members to watch the conference. We will send you a DVD or CD-ROM of the conference proceedings or a link to our web site with a username and password. You can log in and view the program right from your computer ? any time of the day or night, whenever convenient for you and your colleagues ? and benefit from the archived recording of the conference, including the Q&A period. You'll get to listen to the question and answer session to hear details on: how patient consent, co-payments and deductibles may be a potential barrier and how you can address these potential issues; where the care plan can reside; the necessary time for a physician to supervise per patient per month; and how to confirm a patient is available for rendering Chronic Care Management services. To register for the on-demand re-broadcast, download an .MP3 file or order the training DVD or CD-ROM of Chronic Care Management Reimbursement Compliance: Overcoming Obstacles and Meeting Requirements, please visit:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=5010 I hope you find it useful. Cordially, Melanie Matthews
Executive Vice President
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