New Medicare payment practices that took effect on January 1 will improve payments to physicians who care for high-need patients in the hope that those enhanced payments will improve the care such seniors receive.
A medical doctor standing with a confident smileAmong those improved payments are:

  • payments to physicians for the time they spend working with specialists, families, pharmacists, caregivers, and others to coordinate services for seriously ill patients
  • improved payments for time spent coordinating seniors’ transitions between different care settings and home and connecting those patients with additional resources
  • separate payments to perform cognitive impairment assessments
  • payments for time physicians spend reviewing patient records and talking on the phone to patients and their caregivers
  • ayments for work physicians perform with their high-need patients’ behavioral health caregivers

Learn more about how Medicare is trying to improve care for its some of its highest-need, highest-cost patients in this Kaiser Health News report.