A legislative priority issue for SVS and its members for 2016 is Chronic Care Management. The SVS Government Relations Committee has offered input on the matter.
SVS has reiterated to the Senate Finance Committee the importance of including specialists in reimbursements for chronic care management as well as including chronic care management in the creation of Alternative Payment Models for specialists.
The remarks were follow-up comments to ones submitted in June 2015 by more than 500 groups, including SVS. Specialists, however, were not included in a document the committee released in late 2015, though many specialists provide longitudinal care for patients with multiple chronic care conditions.
SVS said once again that primary care physicians typically defer chronic care management to specialists when patients have acute conditions. Particularly in high-morbidity situations, specialists directing this acute chronic care should receive appropriate reimbursement for it, the SVS remarks added.
SVS staff will follow-up with the committee members and staff.
