Older Americans with chronic diseases can learn how to manage their conditions and take control of their health using the $27 million in grants announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Communities Putting Prevention to Work Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will allow 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia to provide self-management programs to older adults with chronic diseases build statewide delivery systems and develop the workforce that delivers these programs.
Chronic disease can negatively affect quality of life and threaten the ability of older adults to remain independent within their own homes and communities. The more chronic diseases an individual has, the more likely that individual will become hospitalized. Two-thirds of Medicare spending is for beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions.
State agencies on aging, public health departments, and Medicaid agencies will work together to support the deployment of evidence-based chronic disease self-management programs targeted at older adults with chronic conditions. Grantees will serve at least 50,000 older adults and gather evidence regarding the impact of these programs on health behavior and the health status outcomes of the participants.
Two federal evaluation activities will complement required state reporting. Additionally, AoA will collaborate with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a pilot test in one state as a quality assurance process that will track Medicare claims data of chronic disease self-management program participants and Medicare beneficiaries not participating in the program. Data from all these sources will be used to assess the impact of this Recovery Act program on participant health behaviors, health status, health care utilization and health care costs.
To see the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program State Funding Table, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery/cdc/awardschronicdisease.html
To learn more about the Chronic Disease Self-management Program grantees, visit http://www.aoa.gov/AoAroot/PRESS_Room/News/2009/03_18_09.aspx
To learn more about the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cppw/factsheet.html