Legislation result of year-long effort led by Isakson to provide better care at lower cost for seniors

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today joined a bipartisan group of senators in introducing S.3504, the Creating High-quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2016, a bill to strengthen and improve health outcomes for seniors enrolled in Medicare who are living with chronic conditions.

The bill is being introduced by Isakson, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee’s Chronic Care working group, along with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., who co-chairs the working group with Isakson.

“Medicare shouldn’t just be a program that pays the bills when you get sick,” said Isakson, a member of the two Senate committees with oversight of health care policy. “It should also encourage your doctors to work with you to keep you healthy and out of the hospital by providing high quality, patient-centered care.”

“I’m proud to introduce this legislation that will help promote better-coordinated care for seniors with multiple chronic health conditions and empower doctors and patients to work together to improve the health of the whole person,” Isakson continued. “I urge my colleagues in the Senate to support this no-cost, bipartisan measure to see to it that seniors enrolled in Medicare will have the opportunity to receive better care at lower cost.”

A summary of the CHRONIC Care Act of 2016 can be found here.

Background:

Announced at a May 2015 Finance Committee hearing on chronic care, the bipartisan Chronic Care working group was formed to explore cost-effective solutions to improve health outcomes for Medicare patients living with one or more chronic conditions. Isakson, a leading voice on issues relating to improved care for those with long-term health conditions, was selected along with Warner to lead the working group.

The working group produced a policy options paper in December 2015 and called for stakeholder input into the groups’ ideas. The working group received 327 submissions from interested stakeholders across the country who provided thoughtful ideas on ways the Medicare program can better deliver health care to beneficiaries with multiple chronic illness.  Those submissions were considered by working group members to craft a discussion draft released in October of this year.