Council on Aging (COA) is one of only 10 organizations throughout the country chosen to participate in the National Council on Aging’s (NCOA) Medicare Reimbursement Learning Collaborative (MRLC) during 2018-19.
The goal of the MRLC is to support state and community-based organizations as they work to obtain accreditation for their Chronic Disease Self-Management Education (CDSME) programs and payment for CDSME services through three possible Medicare benefits: Diabetes Self-Management Training, Medical Nutrition Therapy and Chronic Care Management.
“We are honored to have been chosen for the collaborative and are looking forward to learning from our peers and NCOA about seeking Medicare-approved accreditation for COA-managed CDSME programs,” said Sharon Fusco, vice president of COA’s Business Services Group. “This was a competitive application process. We were selected because our CDSME team, Nancy Green and Elaine Hordes, has developed a successful and sustainable program.”
According to NCOA, these three Medicare benefits are vastly underutilized. Participation in the learning collaborative can help organizations bring valuable CDSME programs to more people by giving them the opportunity to learn from their peers and from organizations who have successfully secured accreditation and Medicare recognition – and thus Medicare reimbursement – for their CDSME programs.
“While COA has offered Healthy U Chronic Disease Self Management workshops for eight years, this potential new avenue for funding could allow us to reach more older adults in our area who are living with chronic diseases,” Fusco said.
COA has offered CDSME workshops – called Healthy U and Matter of Balance – and trained facilitators for these programs since 2010. Since that time, more than 3,100 people have participated in COA-sponsored CDSME workshops. For more information about these and other wellness programs, please visit our website.