About the CMS Initiative

As part of its Care Management for High-Cost Beneficiaries Demonstration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) selected Health Hero Network to lead a team to demonstrate how home health monitoring technology can help Medicare patients with severe chronic illness live healthier, happier, longer lives – and reduce Medicare spending by preventing hospitalizations.

The team chosen to implement the Health Buddy Program is made up of:

	Health Hero Network, provider of the Health Buddy system
	American Medical Group Association (AMGA), strategic partner for medical groups
	Bend Memorial Clinic in Bend, Oregon
	Wenatchee Valley Medical Center in Wenatchee, Washington

The medical groups will implement a physician-led, technology-supported care management program for up to 2,500 Medicare beneficiaries with congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and/or diabetes. These beneficiaries are already under your care or the care of physicians at the medical centers listed above.

Once CMS has identified the eligible patients, care managers will then actively recruit, enroll and manage CMS-assigned patients with the active cooperation of medical group physicians.

The Health Buddy Program is slated to begin in February 2006, and will last three years. It is expected to save at least 5 percent of the total Medicare costs for the high-cost patients eligible for the program.

Beneficiary participation in the programs will be voluntary and will not change the amount, duration or scope of participants' fee-for-service Medicare benefits. Fee-for-service Medicare benefits will continue to be covered, administered and paid under the traditional Fee-for-service Medicare program. Programs will be offered at no charge to the beneficiary. Organizations chosen for the demonstration will not be able to restrict beneficiary access to care or restrict beneficiaries to a limited number of physicians in a network.