Improving Chronic Care Management: Essential Role of Medications

Posted On April 25, 2023

Improving Chronic Care Management: Essential Role of Medications

Medication and chronic care go hand in hand. In fact, one report finds that chronic care patients are responsible for up to 9 in every 10 prescriptions. The right medication is key to improving chronic care management, by not just helping to manage the symptoms of the disease but possibly even negating the extent of its progression. Furthermore, medications also have a large role to play in the broader CCM picture, more so when it comes to health outcomes and shoring up CCM revenue. Today, we learn more about the vital role medication plays in uplifting chronic care management. Let’s get started

Better Medication Adherence Elevates CCM Outcomes

Patient non-compliance or non-adherence in terms of medication can limit the success of chronic care management services or even result in failure altogether. In reality, for every 10 treatment failures, nonadherence is behind 5 of them.

It is also quite alarming to also point out that adherence to chronic medication is only at 50% when we need to get it to about 80% to optimize CCM. Consistency of medication is essential to keeping chronic care management on track and elevating CCM success.

With medication adherence, chronic care management can improve in the following ways:

• Fewer admissions
• Fewer rehospitalizations
• Faster or shorter recovery cycle

Reducing The Burden Of CCM By Compounding Medication

Across America, the average person is on about 4 prescription pills, according to a Consumer Report survey. The figure could be much higher for individuals managing one or more long-term illnesses, and this huge medication burden is one of the main reasons for treatment fatigue and subsequent drops in adherence.

Compounding medication can be just what we need to ease chronic care management. It can help reduce the burden by merging multiple pills into a single one, thus ensuring patients have to keep up with fewer medications. As a result, CCM treatment adherence will improve and we’re bound to notice more positive or desired health outcomes.

Medication-Related Services Contribute to CCM Revenue & Expansion

It takes huge financial resources to keep chronic care management plans afloat. Medication-related services through chronic care management programs can help increase a care facility’s revenue to help CCM programs in terms of:

• Increasing efficiency
• Funding technological upgrades
• Enabling CCM scalability and much more

Medication-related services qualify for billing via the CPT 99490 code, as long as it lasts for no less than 20 minutes per month. Some of the activities that count toward this billing include assisting patients with medication management, review, and reconciliation.

Improving The Quality Of Life For CCM Patients Through Medication

Chronically ill patients have to contend with a plethora of uncomfortable symptoms, which vary from one disease to another. For patients grappling with high blood pressure, for instance, the go-to usually includes beta-blockers, diuretics, and alpha-blockers.

All these medications work to ensure blood vessel dilation, lower heart rate, and improve waste removal, thus easing the strain on the body. Each chronic condition would require a particular type of medication to alleviate relief and provide comfort to the patient, depending on the exact symptoms.

For patients managing multiple conditions, different medication interactions can be a huge concern. Consequently, a medication management service may be key to avoiding any potential side effects that arise from this. A CCM partner may also help to minimize medical errors, with the average caregiver estimated to make one or more meditation errors per day.

Medication Can Also Help In Patient Identification For CCM

Identifying eligible CCM patients is usually a huge challenge for many hospitals and practices. It is the bare minimum that the ideal patient should have 2 or more conditions, according to the Center for Medicare Services.

That being said, there are also several other metrics to be taken into account as well beyond the chronic disease tally. Medications could light the way to figuring out these other considerations. Other factors that also help with determining suitable CCM candidates include:

• The number of medications
• Repeat admission rate
• Length of illnesses (this usually needs to be at least 1 year or until patient death)

Repeat medications are by convention a crucial identifier for eligible CCM patients. Clinicians can use a patient’s medication profile to help determine the right patients for their programs, which entail patients likely to be qualified for medical compensation by the government. Of course, human insight is also essential to pick out the right CCM patients, more so when paired with advanced analytics.

Maximize CCM Success With The Right Partner

To improve chronic care management, we must enhance medication management.  We can do that through caregiver/patient education, and implementing medication management technologies or solutions, to name a few. All in all, the step to superior chronic care management begins by choosing the right partner to help ensure you’re off to the right start. For proven CCM services to set you on the right track, turn to the Aura Health website today.