BLOOMFIELD, Conn., Aug. 29, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CIGNA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced that a new program to assist selected Medicare beneficiaries will be launched in Georgia in September. The new program, called Medicare Health Support, will serve approximately 20,000 chronically ill Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who have diabetes or congestive heart failure among their conditions. The program will help participants manage their health and adhere to their physicians’ plans of care.
CIGNA Health Support, working in collaboration with American Healthways, will provide participants with telephonic and facility-based support by nurses and other health care professionals. As part of the program, nurses will work in consultation with the beneficiary, the treating physician and the various different health care providers involved in the beneficiary’s treatment to help coordinate care.
“We are pleased to be a part of the Medicare Health Support initiative and to be working with Georgia’s physician community so that Medicare beneficiaries can realize the positive health effects the program can help provide,” said Christopher Coloian, president of CIGNA Health Support.
CIGNA Health Support is providing the program under a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CIGNA is one of the organizations CMS selected last December to take part in Phase I of Medicare Health Support (formerly known as Voluntary Chronic Care Improvement Programs). The initiative was authorized by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) and is designed to offer support to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with chronic conditions to help them manage their health and receive appropriate care to avoid complications.
“American Healthways and CIGNA have worked together for nearly a decade to improve the health of people with chronic conditions, and we’re proud to be working in collaboration with them on what we believe will prove to be one of the most significant new programs in Medicare history,” said American Healthways President and CEO Ben R. Leedle, Jr.
The program is completely voluntary and is free to Medicare beneficiaries. It will initially be focused on beneficiaries, pre-selected by CMS, who have congestive heart failure or complex diabetes among their chronic conditions. The Medicare Health Support Program will be holistic in its approach and scope, not limited to specific diseases. As part of the first phase of the program, CMS will evaluate the programs for their success in improving quality of care, promoting patient satisfaction and achieving Medicare expenditure targets.
CIGNA has provided disease management and case management programs through its group health care benefit plans and currently manages the largest population-based disease management program in the country in collaboration with American Healthways. Over 600,000 CIGNA members currently participate in CIGNA Well Aware for Better Health(SM) disease management programs which are focused on six different chronic conditions. Approximately 90,000 are in cardiac care programs and approximately 185,000 are in the diabetes program.
“CIGNA” or “CIGNA Health Support” refers to various operating subsidiaries of CIGNA Corporation . Products and services are provided by these operating subsidiaries and not by CIGNA Corporation.
CIGNA HealthCare
CONTACT: Amy Turkington, CIGNA, +1-860-226-3489, amy.turkington@cigna.com
Web site: http://www.cigna.com/
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