Care Transitions and the New Health Care Environment

Tuesday, May 1
8:00 - 8:30   Breakfast and networking
8:30 - 10:30 Program
JF&CS Headquarters, 1430 Main Street, Waltham

The costs of preventable re-hospitalizations ($17.4 billion in 2004) have propelled the topic of care transitions to the forefront of every health care conversation. Everyone agrees that we need improved coordination of care and services, especially for patients with multiple chronic conditions, at higher risk for poor outcomes, and who need assistance as they transition from hospital to rehab to home. So what's next?
Please join our panel of local experts from the public and private sectors to discuss the impact of health care reform on care transitions in post-acute settings.

• Will ACOs make it less costly (and easier) to transition care from setting to setting?
• Will patients have to pay more out-of-pocket for health care?
• What do we have to do to get this right? Who does what?

Moderator: Kathy Burnes, Project Manager, JF&CS Geriatric Institute  

Panel
Andrea Cohen, CEO HouseWorks
Ellen Lash, Director of JF&CS Homecare Operations Amy McNulty, MBA, Program Director, Community Care Linkages Dr. Matt Shuster, Chief of the Department of Ambulatory Geriatrics at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
 
Kathy Burnes is project manager of the Jewish Family & Children's Service Geriatric Institute. She develops and implements a range of initiatives that translate research into community-based practices to improve the health and well-being of older adults. Her work has focused on managing public and private funded programs in healthy aging, fall prevention, and depression detection and suicide prevention.
HouseWorks CEO Andrea Cohen is a social entrepreneur dedicated to transforming the way that care is delivered to seniors at home. Over the last decade, Andrea and her team have built the largest single site private home care company in the country, and opened a second location in Bethesda, Maryland in 2008. Andrea was recently name the Board chair of the National Family Caregivers Association, and was selected as a Finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011.
Ellen Lash has worked in the healthcare industry for more than thirty years. Her particular expertise is in home care administration, with experience in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. She has been with JF&CS since 1995 and has been the director of the home health and home care programs since 2005.

Amy McNulty directs Community Care Linkages, a Mass Home Care-sponsored initiative to link the Massachusetts Aging Services Access Points (ASAPs) network into the evolving healthcare delivery system in response to health care reform. Community Care Linkages bridges the gap between the existing healthcare systems and long term services and supports to promote "whole person" care for the elderly and disabled individuals.
Dr. Matt Shuster is a member of the Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates Intensive Home Based (IHB) Program and is Chief of the HVMA Department of Ambulatory Geriatrics. Five years ago, he developed a geriatric consultation program, which now provides services for frail elders at five locations around the Boston area. He also serves as medical director of Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care of MA. In 2007 he was recognized as Physician of the Year by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts.