Evaluation of the Extended Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration

The purpose of this task order is to have one of CMS's existing Medicare Research and Demonstration (MRAD) Task Order contractors conduct the extended evaluation of the Medicare Coordinated Care Demonstration (MCCD). The MCCD, which began in 2002, will be evaluated for those programs which were extended beyond the initial four year period of operations (i.e., 2002 - 2006) and for which findings were just reported in the third Report to Congress (RTC). Eleven of the programs were extended up through a sixth year (2008). While eight of the 11 programs lacked evidence of cost-effectiveness after their initial four years of operation and ended in 2008, two of the other three programs have now been extended two more years, into spring of 2010. This task order will provide the cumulative evaluation of these eleven extended programs. There will be two major deliverables. The final fourth RTC will focus solely upon the two more successful programs that were extended until 2010, and will cover cumulative claims coverage from 2002 up through September 30, 2008. In addition, it will provide an assessment of interventions and characteristics within and/or across the two programs that appear to be associated with successful quality or cost outcomes. A subsequent final report to CMS will encompass the total, cumulative claims analyses for each of these 11 extended MCCD programs, from 2002 until their respective closure dates. The evaluation contract period of performance will run for 36 months, from September 2008 through September 2011. This evaluation of the cumulative experience for each of the 11 extended MCCD programs will provide Congress and CMS with information that is important and relevant for future decisions regarding the cost-effectiveness and health outcomes of care coordination and disease management within the Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) milieu. Furthermore, the identification of any association of program characteristics or intervention process components with their quality of care and/or cost outcomes within the two more successful extended programs may delineate more specific models of care management success that can be tested in the future.