Stroke Treatment Bill Passes Senate. The Senate passed the Stroke Treatment and Prevention Act (S. 1274), designed to call attention to stroke treatment and prevention programs. It would authorize $40 million in 2002 spending for grants programs for states to improve stroke care. It would establish the Paul Coverdell Stroke Registry and Clearinghouse in the HHS to collect data about patient care and to assist in development of effective treatment. The bill has been sent to the House and referred to the Committee on Energy & Commerce.
How can this bill be enhanced to address end-of-life issues, such as care for the chronically ill? ABCD President Joanne Lynn, M.D., suggests adding provisions to improve care for people who will not recover from their strokes. Such provisions would include demonstration programs to mobilize services to the home directly from the emergency room; funding for family support and training, as well as respite care; and epidemiology studies of how people fare as they near the end of life.
To read the entire bill, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov.
Medicare Demonstration Project. In February, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)[http://cms.gov] announced funding for the Medicare Disease Management Demonstration. This demonstration will use disease management interventions to improve the quality of services to beneficiaries, introduce full prescription drug coverage to encourage compliance with medical instructions, and manage expenditures. The demonstrations will focus on caring for people with chronic conditions that present the highest costs to Medicare: congestive heart failure, diabetes, or coronary heart disease. Groups providing disease management services to these beneficiaries are eligible to apply for funding.
These demonstration programs present another opportunity for end-of-life advocates to push to include issues about improving end-of-life care. Groups applying for these funds might want to include quality measures that reflect end-of-life issues, such as continuity of care, advance care planning, and other relevant concerns. Application deadline is May 23, 2002. For details, contact Tamara Jackson-Douglas, CMS Project Officer, at 410-786-9417 or tjackson2@cms.hhs.gov.
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