Originally published August 17 2005
Health coaches can aid the chronically ill
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A new program has been developed in central Florida to allow health coaches to help the chronically ill make better choices about their care.
A new pilot program coming this fall to central Florida will provide chronically ill Medicare patients with access to health coaches, who will advise them on medical choices and preventive care and help calm any fears.
The three-year program, dubbed Medicare Health Support, will neither cost participants anything nor alter their benefits.
Coaches could also tell patients what questions they should ask doctors, even rehearsing asking such questions.
But they aren't substitutes for physicians and won't try to be, said Tamara Hall, senior vice president of innovation at Boston-based Health Dialog Services Corp., which will implement the program in western Pennsylvania.
Instead, they will try to help reduce patients' confusion when "they're are fearful of something, they don't understand what's going on," said Hall, a registered nurse who also serves as a health coach.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid, this month launched the program to give 180,000 chronically ill fee-for-service Medicare recipients nationwide access to health coaches.
The federal agency estimates that Medicare this year will spend $333 billion in benefits, of which about $280 billion will be fee-for-service payments, under which patients are allowed to see doctors of their choice and bill Medicare for services, said Sandy Foote, a senior adviser with the agency.
The program will soon launch in Mississippi; Florida, from Tampa to Naples; greater Chicago; northern Georgia; Queens and Brooklyn in New York; and 35 counties in Tennessee.
Foote said each provider will be paid per participant per month, depending on the geographic area, and the agency would not make public the exact fee.
Another 10,000 in each area will be in control groups so their medical costs and quality can be measured against the other group.
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