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Date: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145
Chronic disease is the major cause of death, severe illness and disability in the United States, accounting for three out of four deaths and affecting over 100 million people. Many programs claim to improve health and reduce chronic disease, but have not been rigorously evaluated or tested with a focus on how they affect Medicare beneficiaries. The Healthy Aging Project will do just that.
The Healthy Aging Project will identify strategies that have been successful in promoting a healthy aging experience. The project will find and test strategies to reduce behavioral risk factors and encourage the use of clinical preventive services. At the end, the first compendium of scientifically proven strategies to reduce behavioral risk factors for seniors will be produced. Health care providers will be able to use this information to improve the delivery of preventive services.
"A key challenge for our scientists and medical experts will be finding improved ways to slow or prevent physical disabilities in our nation's elderly," HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala said. "This project will help to accomplish that worthy goal. We already estimate there will be 68 million seniors by 2030 -- a tremendous increase from today's 34 million. Keeping seniors healthy is one of the major challenges of the next century."
HHS' Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare, has selected the RAND Corp., based in Santa Monica, Calif., as the contractor to conduct the Healthy Aging Project. The project is expected to cost about $3.7 million over five years.
The Healthy Aging Project is HCFA's first initiative to examine ways to reduce behavioral risk factors in the elderly, which contribute to 70 percent of the physical decline that occurs with aging. Research indicates that a major portion of the physical decline among the elderly is caused more by the absence of comprehensive health promotion and disease prevention strategies than by aging itself.
The Healthy Aging project will gather the evidence on strategies to reduce behavioral risk factors, such as smoking and physical inactivity. The contractor will test ways to reduce behavioral risk factors in Medicare beneficiaries in managed care and fee-for-service.
Clinical preventive services are also important in helping seniors stay healthy. The Healthy Aging Project will present the evidence on strategies that promote the use of Medicare preventive benefits, such as mammograms, colorectal cancer screening and flu shots.
"Medicare is doing more and more to help seniors stay healthy," said HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle.
Medicare now pays for a number of preventive services, including flu and pneumonia shots, to prevent and detect diseases at early stages where they are most treatable. The flu shot is given each year before the flu season, while most people need to get the pneumonia shot only once. In January 1998, Medicare coverage of mammograms was expanded to include all women aged 40 and over, who are covered by Medicare. Coverage for a screening pap smear was expanded to include both a pelvic exam and clinical breast exam every three years for most women, and colorectal cancer screening became a new benefit. In July, Medicare expanded coverage of preventive benefits for beneficiaries at risk for osteoporosis and other bone abnormalities, and for people with diabetes.
The Healthy Aging Project was jointly developed by HCFA and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, in consultation with the National Institute on Aging, the Administration on Aging, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
"Collaboration within HHS on this critical topic has resulted in a first-rate project," DeParle said. "This collaborative effort across the department will enable us to do even more."