COPDF Submits Comments on a New Strategic Framework to Manage Multiple Chronic Conditions
June 22, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Ifdy Perez, COPD Foundation
Email:
Tel: 1-866-731-2673, ext. 398
WASHINGTON, DC (June 2010) —The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has proposed a Draft Strategic Framework with the goal of reducing the burden of Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCC) in the U.S. and within the Medicare system.
The COPD Foundation provided comments on the draft aimed at alerting the DHHS to the increasing burden of COPD, and the impact of multiple chronic conditions on Americans with COPD.
The Draft Strategic Framework on MCC is dedicated to finding innovative ways the federal government can address chronic diseases over a five-year period with news strategies that will include pilot programs. The draft plan aims to realize optimum health and quality of life for individuals with multiple chronic conditions. Responding to this draft document is one of the many ways the COPD Foundation is reaching out to encourage the federal government to increase it’s recognition and programs dedicted to COPD, diagnosis, treatment and management.
“As our population ages, more and more people struggle with multiple medical issues or multiple chronic conditions as this report suggests. COPD is a prime example. Many folks with COPD tend to have multiple medical conditions ranging from heart disease to osteoporosis, from reflux and arthritis to depression and cancer,” Dr. Byron Thomashow, who is on the COPD Foundation Board of Directors, says. “Most disease guidelines address issues relating only to the specific disease. As we move forward with COPD and other chronic medical diseases, we need to address the whole individual, not just the specific disease.”The draft plan aims to realize optimum health and quality of life for individuals with multiple chronic conditions.
The need for the DHHS initiative stems from the increased numbers of people suffering from MCC combined with the complexity of our health care system, especially for patients who have to see different specialists to treat each chronic condition they are experiencing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over 75 million Americans have two or more chronic conditions. In 2006, of the over 3,000 COPD patients surveyed, 81 percent reported suffering from six or more conditions affecting their health.
The comments from the COPD Foundation (which are available in full text in PDF form below) addressed the need for developing practice guidelines and curriculums that educate providers on how to treat the entire individual and not just COPD.
They also focused on encouraging dissemination of self-management and patient education tools and implementing home based interventions, supporting payment changes that allow more allied health care professional involvement in education services and encouraging further research and pilot programs that will help improve the way individuals with MCC are treated.
“Only once we can accomplish this more general approach will we be able to deliver truly individualized personal care,” Thomashow says. “The COPD Foundation enthusiastically supports the efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services in drafting a Strategic Framework for multiple chronic conditions.”
Providing better information to healthcare workers, self-management tools to individuals, affecting system changes and encouraging research were the tenants of the Draft Strategic Framework that was released in May for comment.
About the COPD Foundation
The COPD Foundation is dedicated to developing and supporting programs which improve the quality of life through research, education, early diagnosis, and enhanced therapy for persons whose lives are impacted by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The COPD Foundation has several programs dedicated to informing, empowering, educating, and engaging individuals affected by COPD, including both diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals, their families and friends, and their medical professionals. For more information, please visit: http://www.copdfoundation.org.
About COPD
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the only chronic disease growing in mortality. It affects approximately 24 million Americans but only 12 million are diagnosed. COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and adult onset (refractory) asthma. Symptoms include breathlessness, wheezing, and chronic coughing. For more information about COPD, visit http://www.copdfoundation.org or call 1-866-316-COPD (2673).