In-home and telehealth options promote continuity of care

Begin the new year strong by encouraging your patients to obtain their 360 comprehensive assessment. As you know, this exam can be key to the early detection and treatment of potential health conditions. It can act as a springboard to creating a personal preventive care plan for your patients, as well as provide them with an important gateway to other preventive screenings. Typically, people with Medicare plans who do not complete this visit do so due to barriers to care or because they don’t understand the purpose of the visit.

Help educate your patients

Often, people don’t understand that this exam differs from — and does not replace — an annual physical exam. Whereas the annual physical is a hands-on exam that typically includes blood work and other tests, the 360 comprehensive assessment is an additional exam that focuses on preventive care and wellness planning.

In-home and telehealth options are available

Most 360 comprehensive assessments are performed in the primary care provider’s (PCP’s) office. However, eligible patients may have them performed in the home setting, which can give a unique perspective that encompasses health indicators observed there.

If an individual with a Cigna Healthcare Medicare Advantage plan faces transportation barriers to completing an onsite 360 comprehensive assessment with their PCP or doesn’t have a PCP, they may be able to have their 360 comprehensive assessment performed by network-participating providers in-home or via a telehealth visit.

Advantages of in-home visits for patients and PCPs

• Provides additional face time. Free from traditional practice time and scheduling constraints, an in-home 360 comprehensive assessment with a Cigna Healthcare-contracted medical practitioner (a physician, physician’s assistant, nurse practitioner, or team of medical providers) allows for more time to discuss a patient’s medical history, health goals, and other issues. These details can be passed along to the patient’s PCP.
• Provides a comprehensive view of health indicators. During an in-home 360 comprehensive assessment, medical providers may be able to better assess cognitive and behavioral status, medication management, functional and mobility issues, and other factors that can impact a patient’s overall health, such as their food supply and home environment.
• Helps to close care gaps related to social determinants of health. 360 comprehensive assessments are lower among Blacks and Hispanics, according to industry figures.* Other issues like transportation, weather, and limited mobility can impact a person’s ability to get to their PCP’s office for an in-person 360 comprehensive assessment. The in-home 360 comprehensive assessment can close this gap.
• Supports the provider-patient relationship. When 360 comprehensive assessments aren’t conducted by the PCP, the PCP will continue to maintain control of the patient relationship. This is because Cigna Healthcare will follow up with the PCP when the annual wellness visit is completed. The PCP and patient will both receive a mailed copy of the results. Our goal is to close the loop and reconnect the patient with their PCP for future discussions and screenings. If a person does not have a designated PCP, we’ll help to connect them with one. Additionally, studies have shown that patients who receive an annual wellness visit are 62% more likely to seek other preventive health services. **

What Cigna Healthcare Medicare Advantage plans cover

Our plans cover 360 comprehensive assessments, which can be conducted in-office — or via telehealth or in-home care for eligible customers — in addition to a routine physical exam.

We also cover certain preventive health screenings, such as eye exams, bone mineral density tests for women who have experienced a fracture, and A1C screenings. Our in-home 360 comprehensive assessments are conducted at no additional cost to the patient. In addition, when patients complete certain screenings and exams, incentive rewards may be added to their Cigna Healthy Today^SM card.

Is your patient eligible for a telehealth or in-home annual wellness visit?

Patient eligibility requirements vary depending on the benefit plan. To learn more, or to refer a patient for an annual wellness visit, contact your Provider Performance Enablement Representative.

Patient preventive screening incentives

To learn more about patient preventive screening incentives, read the Patient Health Incentives flyer. For more information on the 360 comprehensive assessment, please visit Medicareproviders.cigna.com > Health Assessment Tools and Information.

* Beth Carter. “Annual Wellness Visits: Usage Rates among Medicare Advantage Enrollees.” AARP. 14 May 2019. Retrieved from https://blog.AARP.org/thinking-policy/awv.

** “Achieving Large-Scale Quality Improvement in Primary Care Annual Wellness Visits and Hierarchical Condition Coding, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Journal of General Internal Medicine, May 2022. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8768436/.