Senate’s Chronic Care Working Group Circulates Draft Bill

Members of the Senate Finance Committee are floating legislative proposals aimed at improving the health outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) released draft legislation and a letter outlining what related regulatory steps have been adopted since the chronic care working group convened about a year and a half ago. Treatment for patients with chronic diseases accounts for 86 percent of the nation’s health care spending, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The discussion draft released Thursday focuses on increasing access to high-quality home care for patients with chronic conditions, advancing team-based care, expanding the use of technology in caring for these patients, improving identification of such patients, and empowering patients and caregivers to better coordinate care.

The four senators also wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, praising the agencies for adapting some recommendations from a policy options document the group released earlier last year in the 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule.