The Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act was
For that matter, caregivers may have chronic conditions of their own. This is increasingly common as people live longer. Some seniors even end up providing some care or support for their own aging parents.
What is the CHRONIC Care Act?
The CHRONIC Care Act aims to provide more support for people with chronic conditions. This includes a particularly strong emphasis on coordinating and accessing care.
Care coordination is a highly significant issue, as multiple parties are involved in the care of any one patient. Good communication between these parties helps protect the health of the patient. Health issues often occur when this communication breaks down.
These areas of focus means that the Act strongly targets Medicare. There are also aspects that provide support for programs targeting Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
The Act and Telehealth
One of the most significant areas is increased support of telehealth – for people on some Medicare Advantage plans.
Telehealth is a fascinating field. It focuses on the provision of remote health care using electronic tools. Such systems can seem overly complicated at first, but they have some distinct advantages.
- Telehealth allows seniors to receive support without leaving the home. This is amazing for people who face mobility challenges.
- Accessing some healthcare from home can also reduce some costs. For one thing, you don’t need to worry about arranging transport to get your family member to and from a doctor’s office.
- Telehealth can be safer too. Visiting a doctor’s office exposes seniors to potential infections, especially if their immune system is weak. Many types of healthcare support can be provided remotely, which dramatically reduces this risk.
The CHRONIC Care Act is only the first step in this process. As Rachel from Modern Healthcare highlights, more legislation is needed, including laws that reduce site-based restrictions. Even so, the current Act shows an appealing emphasis on technology in healthcare. This suggests that future policy may follow suit.
Medicare Advantage and Non-Medical Benefits
The CHRONIC Care Act also gives Medicare Advantage plans more flexibility for non-medical benefits. This mostly applies to members who have high needs or at high risks.
It can be a way to fund some adaptive items, including bathroom grab bars. Items like this can be powerful. They help to reduce the risk of medical issues – rather than trying to resolve crises after they have occurred.
Much more support is needed in this area too. The provisions in the CHRONIC Care Act just focus on a select group of people. As such, many people with lower risk levels will miss out on support.
Other Impacts
These two areas of impact are particularly important for seniors. They have the potential to reduce the risk of illness and
- Improves service coordination for people on Special Needs Plans who are also receiving Medicaid.
- Establishes a program that allows some groups to pay patients to come in for their appointments.
- Provides an extension of the Independence at Home program, which supports home-based primary care.
- Allows for increased flexibility in Medicare Advantage plans to provide support to beneficiaries with chronic illness.
- Promotes integrated care through a number of mechanisms.
A more detailed analysis of changes with the CHRONIC Care Act can be seen in this guide from The Scan Foundation.
What about the CHRONIC Care Act and Caregivers?
The CHRONIC Care Act is a fantastic step in the right direction. It may also have noticeable impacts in cases where seniors are eligible for telehealth services or for non-medical benefits. Such benefits will be mostly relevant to people on Medicare Advantage plans.
Many other families may see no direct benefits at all.
Even so, there are important connections between the CHRONIC Care Act and caregivers. The Act won bipartisan support. That outcome may be partly because chronic illness is not a party-specific problem and most people know at least one person affected by chronic illness.
This level of support means that there is strong interest in legislation in this area, within the current political climate. That interest could lead to additional legislation over time that serves to more support to those who are chronically ill and, by extension, caregivers.
At the same time, there is a movement towards legislation to support caregivers. The RAISE Family Caregivers Act is one example of this. As recognition of the current caregiving crisis grows, there is hope that more such laws will be signed.
In the meantime, active caregivers continue to need to focus on local resources and any support that they can find. After all, while some of the changes from new legislation will have immediate effects, many more changes will take time.
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