Case managers just need a little confidence and a big mission to become public policy leaders, experts say.
“We’re in the frontlines and we see healthcare’s fragmentation every day,” says Chriss Wheeler, RN, MSN, CCM, a partner with Innovative Care Consultants in Independence, MO. Wheeler also has served in public policy roles for case management organizations and has spoken about public policy leadership at national conferences.
“Our role is to pull together the pieces to get what the patient needs, and at the same time you have to spend a little money up front and have cost effectiveness show up on the backside,” Wheeler says. “There’s a disconnect between specialists, sometimes, and how they look at their own piece of the pie.”
But case managers see the whole pie and, as such, have a story to tell the public about how case management can help patients and move them through the continuum of care for optimum wellness for whatever health they have, she explains.
Wheeler offers the following tips on how case managers can evolve into public policy leaders:
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Address national quality initiatives. CMS has quality initiatives including the National Quality Strategy, which has six goals:
- Make care safer by reducing the harm caused in the delivery of care.
- Strengthen person and family engagement as partners in their care.
- Promote effective communication and coordination of care.
- Promote effective prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
- Work with communities to promote best practices in healthy living.
- Make care affordable.
Case managers can address these goals in their advocacy for case management services, which are well aligned with those goals, Wheeler suggests.
“You can become a public policy champion at the national level,” she adds.
Or they can be informal leaders, advocating within healthcare organizations for case management’s involvement in the continuum of care as one of the ways organizations can meet the CMS quality goals.
- Get involved in local case management organization chapters. Most chapters have a public liaison role, and that’s a good way to get started in being involved in public policy, Wheeler says.
“You can find out what’s happening nationally and how that will impact the state level,” she suggests.
This position of authority also is a great way to network and meet case management peers across the country and within national organizations.
From there, a case manager might become involved with a public policy committee at the national organizational level or become involved in the national organization’s governmental affairs, Wheeler says.
- Educate yourself about national and state policies that affect case management. “We don’t get a whole lot of education about policy and policymaking,” Wheeler says. “So I think sometimes we have a lack of confidence that holds us back from reaching out to our legislators at the local, state, and federal levels.”
By researching various pending bills and issues that are important to case managers and healthcare, case managers will gain confidence and be able to discuss issues with policymakers when they meet at conferences or in scheduled meetings.
“An ah-ha moment for me was when I at a meeting where the president of CMSA [Case Management Society of America] gave us a little pep talk, saying, ‘You are the experts in your practice,’” Wheeler recalls. “I had never thought of myself as an expert, and yet, in order to take ownership of your practice, you really need to realize you bring value and an expertise that other people don’t have.”
Case managers can add value to the policymaking process and their input is necessary, she adds.
- Attend the annual CMSA day on Capitol Hill. Each year the CMSA invites case managers to join CMSA leaders on Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate representatives. They highlight the critical role CMs play in healthcare delivery, and they learn more about grassroots advocacy. This year’s meeting was held on Sept. 17, 2015.
“There’s a networking reception, continuing education unit meeting in the evening, and then they divide case managers by regional groups, making sure there’s one seasoned person in each group,” Wheeler says. “The first year we did this, folks would ask, ‘What is a case manager?’ By the third year, the same Congressional staffers were saying, ‘I know what a case manager is, but tell me about your caseload,’ and you could tell they were starting to understand.”
Case managers just need a little confidence and a big mission to become public policy leaders, experts say.
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