He concluded, “This really reflects a major change in the way financing of primary care is done in the U.S., and likely is the start of many more non-visit-based financing and reimbursement strategies to move primary care more towards a comprehensive chronic disease management model.”
Carol Levine, director of United Hospital Fund’s Families and Health Care Project, New York, advises patients and family caregivers to “look carefully at this new Medicare benefit from the perspective of their own needs for care coordination.”
Patients “should talk about it with the family member who is most involved in their health care,” Levine told Reuters Health by email.” Are their chronic conditions well-controlled? Do they see many specialists whose recommendations need to be coordinated with the primary doctor? Are they skilled at coordinating care on their own?”
“If so, they may not need the additional service, or may not need it now,” Levine concluded. “If none of these apply, however, the new service may well be very useful.”
