Medicare to propose new doctor payment for managing multiple chronic conditions

Medicare is proposing paying doctors for managing Medicare patients with multiple chronic conditions starting in 2015. In the meantime, a Medicare plan to deny an Eli Lily diagnostic test to patients unless they are enrolled in a clinical trial is decried by some Alzheimer's treatment advocates.

Medscape: CMS Proposes New Fee For Chronic Care Management
In a nod toward primary care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed paying physicians a new fee -- beginning in 2015 -- for managing Medicare patients with 2 or more chronic conditions apart from face-to-face office visits. Right now, the details are sketchy: CMS has yet to set the amount of the fee, and the agency is asking the medical profession to help it develop standards for earning the extra cash (Lowes, 7/9).

Reuters: Medicare Plan On Alzheimer's Test Dismays Advocates
Alzheimer's experts plan to protest proposed Medicare guidelines that would deny coverage of an Eli Lilly diagnostic test for the disease unless patients are taking part one of several clinical trials in which the $3,000 test is being used. Eli Lilly and Co and the Alzheimer's Association have objected to the draft guidelines, issued last week by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the agency that runs Medicare (Steenhuysen, 7/9).