C-TAC Featured in Bipartisan Roundtable

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Judith McAuley
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May 21, 2014

Bipartisan Leaders of Senate Committee on Aging Roundtable Raising Awareness around Advanced Illness Care

C-TAC’s Bill Novelli Joins AHIP Foundation’s Carmella Bocchino to Discuss Advanced Care Delivery with Senate Leaders 

With more Americans living longer and as Baby Boomers begin to age, the Senate Committee on Aging today convened experts in all aspects of care delivery to examine how best to improve the way we care for people with advanced illness and their caregivers in America. Participants of the Roundtable described the Advanced Care Project – a joint C-TAC and AHIP Foundation’s Institute for Health Systems Solutions initiative – as an example of the kind of innovative effort we need to transform today’s advanced care delivery system to meet growing needs of patients and their families.

“In today’s health care system, patients and their families have great difficulty getting the help they need at this very difficult time in their lives,” said Bill Novelli, Co-Chair of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (­C-TAC), professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and former CEO of AARP.  “Today’s discussion is about the best practices to enhance care quality for everyone with advanced illness, including the sickest and most vulnerable, and to do it on a national scale.”

Jennie Chin Hansen, CEO of the American Geriatrics Society, moderated the panel discussion, which also included Aetna’s National Medical Director, Medical Strategies, Randy Krakauer, Hospice care expert Samira Beckwith of Hope HealthCare Services, Carmella Bocchino, R.N., an officer with AHIP Foundation and others.

Estimates show that by 2030, there will be 72.1 million persons over 65 years, more than twice the number in 2000[1].  Many of these individuals will have substantial disability and chronic condition associated with older age.[2] Most of this population will ultimately face advanced illness –a time when experts suggest that fragmented, uncoordinated care prevents patients and caregivers from having their personal wishes met.

“Every family is impacted at some point by the need for advanced illness care. This is a reality that will help build momentum among all stakeholders to broadly expand the next generation of innovative programs to improve advanced illness care management,” said Carmella Bocchino.

C-TAC and the AHIP Foundation’s Institute for Health Systems Solutions launched the Advanced Care Project last year to establish best practice models in advanced care and actively promote them for adoption nationwide.

“The Advanced Care Project represents a critically important partnership which brings together promising collaborations between multiple private-sector stakeholders including health plans, health systems, a range of clinicians and related organizations and community-based groups,” said Gary Bacher, Director of AHIP Foundation’s Institute for Health Systems Solutions.

“We thrilled to have the opportunity to join a group of bipartisan Senate leader and key experts to discuss this initiative,” stated Tom Koutsoumpas, Co-Chair of C-TAC.

The roundtable will be streamed live at http://www.aging.senate.gov/hearings/continuing-the-conversation_the-role-of-health-care-providers-in-advance-care-planning

To learn more about the Advanced Care Project, visit www.thectac.org or http://www.healthsystemssolutions.org.

 

About C-TAC:

C-TAC is a non-profit, non-partisan alliance of patient and consumer advocacy groups, health care professionals and providers, private sector stakeholders, faith-based organizations and health care payers.  Its mission is to transform advanced illness care by empowering consumers, changing the health delivery system, improving public and private policies and enhancing provider capacity.  http://www.theCTAC.org

About the AHIP Foundation’s Institute for Health Systems Solutions:
The AHIP Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization.  Its Institute for Health Systems Solutions’ mission is to advance solution-based, forward-looking, collaborative ideas and thought leadership focused on health systems change that improves the quality, affordability, and availability of care and puts the health care system on more sustainable financial footing.  For more information, visit: http://www.healthsystemssolutions.org.