Live Your Best

Become an Active Participant in Your Care!

We want to help you successfully manage your health and live the best life possible. Every day, you make decisions that affect your health: you decide when to take medications, and whether to exercise or keep doctor appointments. Making these decisions can be confusing and stressful.

“Planned care” can help you feel more in control of your health by involving you in more decisions about it. For example, you would help set treatment goals based on what is important to you, instead of someone else setting them for you.

Planned care components:

• Home visits by nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social service and/or other support staff as needed

• Scheduled telephone calls between visits to monitor your progress

• Collect data by phone, including your blood pressure, weight, blood sugars, or other measurements (also called telemonitoring)

• Development of your own personal health record to help you manage your healthcare

Your Role:

• Be available for all scheduled home visits and telephone contacts

• Use the telemonitoring system each day and record findings

• To keep all scheduled doctor appointments

• Take ownership of your health management

• Become an informed and active participant in your healthcare

• Adopt healthy behaviors/lifestyle

Our Role:

• Work with you and your family on goals that you and the agency have set

• Assist you with solving issues related to living with a chronic illness, including symptoms, treatment plans, lifestyle changes, etc

• Provide educational materials and resources related to your healthcare needs and lifestyle

• Support you and help you build confidence in your ability to handle the day-to-day challenges of living with a chronic illness

Choose a Healthy Lifestyle:

• Take all medications as prescribed

• Contact your physician when your condition changes

• Follow dietary recommendations

• Keep all scheduled doctor appointments

• Exercise daily

• Maintain your personal health record

• Use available community and Internet (computer) resources

• Stay up-to-date with health screenings and immunizations

This information was prepared by Masspro, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Massachusetts, under contract with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), an agency of the US Department of health and Human Services. The contents presented do not necessarily represent CMS policy.