Medicare Chronic Care Demonstration Programs Not Meeting Financial Target of Budget Neutrality

OPEN MINDS On-Line News Strategic Health Care News After nearly three years in operation, the Medicare Health Support (MHS) demonstration program has not met the requirement of budget neutrality; the MHS program fees are about $360 million. To achieve budget neutrality, the five remaining organizations participating in the MHS demonstration — Aetna, Healthways, Inc., Health Dialog Services Corporation, Green Ribbon Health, and XL Health Corporation — will need to reduce the Medicare claims costs for the beneficiaries in their intervention group by between $300 and $800 per participant per month for the remaining months of their demonstrations, which are slated to . . .