Many changes are coming to our health care system.  The US Senate Finance Committee is working on Health Reform Policy.  As a nurse case manager I am an active member of the Case Management Society of America (CMSA) which is based right here in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In it’s official response to the call for public comments, CMSA encouraged legislators to “align reimbursement to physicians for care/case management activities performed by nurse care/case managers or other qualified professionals and that those activities need to include appropriate transitions of care interventions for patient and their family caregivers.”

Case managers are responsible for the transition and care coordination of patient care.  Care coordination performance is measured through the National Quality Forum support and appropriate payment alignment for those services should be mandatory. CMSA would like to see specific payment codes developed and aligned with performance measure for case/case management services within the collaborative team model. This should support hospital, outpatient, medical home and long term care coordination.

CMSA encourages all Members and allied health care professionals to submit their own individual public comments to the Senate Committee on Finance. Public comments should be emailed in PDF or Microsoft Word format to Health_Reform@finance-dem.senate.gov.

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