September was Sickle Cell Awareness Month. CMS hopes partners and providers will continue their work in raising awareness, sharing resources, and learning how they can better help patients with sickle cell disease and their families.
CMS has released a new resource: CMS Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Health Care Provider Toolkit: Resources for Health Care Professionals to Support Individuals with SCD
This new toolkit builds on the CMS Sickle Cell Disease Action Plan (released in September 2023) to strengthen the infrastructure for primary care and other care settings to care for people with sickle cell disease, improve care management, and assist providers with supporting the needs of people with sickle cell disease and other chronic conditions. The SCD Toolkit consist of 6 sections that equip healthcare providers in delivering quality care to individuals with sickle cell disease. This toolkit is designed to assist the care team in supporting people by introducing sickle cell disease, including the common barriers to care, and summarizing CMS program coverage for services around social determinants and drivers of health as well as and new sickle cell disease treatments.
CMS will continue the work throughout the year to look for ways to address disparities that affect the communities we serve and providing resources to help advance health equity. Share the following resources with your community this month and beyond to raise awareness about sickle cell disease.
Resources
- NEW! CMS Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Health Care Provider Toolkit: Resources for Health Care Professionals to Support Individuals with SCD
- NEW! CMS Data Snapshot: Sickle Cell Disease Disparities in Medicare Fee-For-Service Enrollees
- Read our CMS Sickle Cell Disease Action Plan, which outlines CMS’ actions to improve health outcomes and equity for people with SCD.
- Watch our Sickle Cell Disease video to learn more about SCD disparities, symptoms, and treatment options.
- Download The Invisible Crisis: Understanding Pain Management in Medicare Beneficiaries with Sickle Cell Disease, which highlights options for pain management in SCD patients.
- Read our Prevalence of Sickle Cell Disease among Medicare Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries Age 18-75 Years, in 2016 data highlight to learn about common chronic conditions among SCD patients and more.
- Explore our Coverage to Care initiative, which helps patients understand their health coverage and connect to health care services, including chronic care management resources for providers and patients.
- Review the Medicaid and CHIP Sickle Cell Disease Report, T-MSIS Analytic Files (TAF) 2017 for data about Medicaid and CHIP enrollees with SCD.
- View the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Fact Sheets on Sickle Cell Disease to learn more about the disease and 5 Facts You Should Know About Sickle Cell Disease for more information about how to manage SCD and how it can be cured for certain patients.
Visit the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s What Is Sickle Cell Disease? webpage to learn about symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options, and more.