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Medicare News
Medicare Campaign to Emphasize Preventive Care
'90%-plus of what we are spending is going for
the complications of chronic disease'
June 19, 2006 – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services is planning a campaign for the summer to encourage greater use
of preventive services available through Medicare with a special effort
to reach minorities. To add to this national emphasis on preventive
care, the American Medical Association has just elected its first
president with a board certification in preventive medicine.
 CMS To Launch Campaign To
Encourage Medicare Beneficiaries To Use Preventive Services
CMS this summer plans to launch a campaign that
will encourage Medicare beneficiaries to use preventive services to
address a "prevention gap," the
Los Angeles Times
reports. The campaign will target minority beneficiaries ages 65 and
older, a group among the least likely to use preventive services care
and among the most likely to develop chronic diseases.
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In addition, the 2007 Medicare handbook will focus
on preventive services, and beneficiaries currently can call
1-800-MEDICARE or visit the program Web site to determine whether they
have missed regular physician examinations.
CMS
Administrator Mark McClellan said, "If you take a big step back and look
at Medicare spending, 90%-plus of what we are spending is going for the
complications of chronic disease," adding, "We can get healthier
beneficiaries and a lot lower costs related to complications if we can
get more prevention."
According to McClellan, the new campaign will work
with
NAACP
and organizations that represent Latinos, Asian Americans and Native
Americans and will seek help from national and local organizations that
have helped enroll Medicare beneficiaries in the prescription drug
benefit.
Over the past two years, Medicare has added a
number of new preventive services -- such as "Welcome to Medicare"
physical exams for new beneficiaries, blood tests for cardiac risk
factors, diabetes tests and training to help beneficiaries with diabetes
maintain their blood sugar levels -- but usage has remained low.
Medicare covers the full cost of some preventive
services but requires beneficiaries to pay part of the cost of other
services.
Comments
Vicki Gottlich, an attorney with the
Center for Medicare
Advocacy, said that Medicare beneficiaries do not seek
preventive care for a number of reasons such as a lack of
transportation, lack of updated information, inability to cover the cost
and lack of optimism about their health.
Joshua Sharfstein, public health commissioner for
Baltimore, said, "A promotional campaign is a very good idea, but
Medicare should also be erasing any barriers that exist. Cost should not
be a barrier to evidence-based preventive health care. If something is
cost-effective and it saves lives, it should be provided" (Alonso-Zaldivar,
Los Angeles Times, 6/19).
New AMA President-Elect To Focus on Preventive
Medicine
In related news, the
American Medical
Association House of Delegates last week elected Ronald
Davis, a Michigan preventive medicine specialist, as president-elect of
the organization, the
Chicago Tribune
reports.
Davis, an expert in preventive medicine and public
health, will serve as AMA president-elect until next June, after which
time he will serve as president of the organization for one year. AMA
delegates said that organization public health concerns include tobacco
use, obesity and immunizations.
Davis said, "Big public health issues never seem to
go away. They may change from year to year, but it seems like there are
always big issues out there. I will be the first AMA president to have a
board certification in preventive medicine" (Japsen, Chicago Tribune,
6/18).
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