EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEDICARE PATIENTS
NEW FOR 2015! MEDICARE NOW OFFERS CHRONIC CARE MANAGEMENT!
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Many of our patients have one or more chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or depression. Each of these requires regular evaluation for optimal treatment. This means patients come to the office on a periodic basis for these evaluations. Since each condition requires a separate evaluation, management plan and follow-up, managing multiple chronic diseases at a single visit is not the best care.
To better manage your chronic diseases, we are taking a proactive approach.
First, we will determine how often you need to come to the office, based on national clinical guidelines. This will depend on how many and which chronic diseases you have. For more serious chronic diseases, such as diabetes or heart disease, you would need to be seen two-to-four times per year. For less serious diseases, such as well-controlled blood pressure, you might only need to visit once per year.
At each chronic disease visit, your health care provider and care team will focus primarily on one specified chronic disease. This will enable the team to comprehensively assess and manage that condition with you. In addition to medical management, the team will:
- Provide patient education as needed.
- Make recommendations for healthy lifestyle changes.
- Provide you with tools to track your progress when available.
Occasionally we can evaluate and manage a second chronic disease at the same visit. However, it is rare to manage more than two diseases during the same visit. If, for instance, you have diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure and depression, you will need to make separate appointments.
At the end of each appointment, we will let you know when your next visit needs to be scheduled for chronic disease management. This will ensure that you receive the best, most comprehensive care. And, you can talk with your provider about how often you generally will need to come in.
