The American Geriatrics Society - News - American Geriatrics Society Lauds Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s Contributions to Senate Health Reform Bill Legislation Includes Key Provisions That Would Significantly Improve Healthcare for Older Adults

For Immediate Release
November 23, 2009

For Further Information:
Erin Weller
(212) 308-1414
eweller@americangeriatrics.org

American Geriatrics Society Hails Senate Vote to Begin Debate on Health Bill,
Lauds Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl for Key Contributions to Bill
That Would Significantly Improve Healthcare for Older Americans

New York, NY - The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) hails the Senate's Saturday vote to begin full debate on healthcare reform legislation, and lauds Sen. Herb Kohl (WI-D) for his efforts to ensure that the Senate reform bill includes provisions that would significantly improve healthcare for older adults. The AGS -- a nonprofit association of geriatrics healthcare professionals dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of older people -- has long advocated for and strongly supports the wide range of eldercare provisions in the Senate bill that would help ensure older adults access to high quality and cost-effective care and help make Medicare more sustainable.

"Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Kohl and other champions of senior health in the Senate, the chamber's proposed health reform legislation would address growing, nationwide shortages of healthcare workers trained to meet seniors' unique healthcare needs, and substantially improve the care older adults receive," says AGS President Cheryl Phillips, MD. "We have long advocated for legislation ensuring that seniors have access to quality, cost-effective care, and endorse the many provisions in the Senate bill that would help achieve this important goal."

The Senate bill includes several critical eldercare provisions authored and championed by Sen. Kohl, the Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Aging. In 2008, the senator convened a hearing examining the growing shortage of elder healthcare providers in the U.S. Geriatricians - primary care physicians with advanced training that prepares them to care for even the sickest and most complex older patients - and other geriatrics healthcare providers are already in short supply nationwide. In the next two decades, the number of older adults in the US will double, to roughly 70 million. In Wisconsin, the number of adults 65 and older is expected to grow by about 617,000 in the next 20 years, increasing nearly 86%.

To prepare the nation's healthcare workforce to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population of older adults, the government must make sweeping changes in the way it trains and compensates healthcare professionals and in the country's healthcare systems, then AGS President Todd Semla, PharmD, testified during Sen. Kohl's hearing. The day before the hearing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a groundbreaking report warning that the nation's eldercare workforce would "be woefully inadequate in its capacity to meet the large demand for health services for older adults if current patterns of care and of the training of providers continue."

Sen. Kohl has proposed and championed key health reform provisions to strengthen elder healthcare and long-term care that are included in the Senate reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These provisions would significantly expand education and training opportunities in geriatrics and long-term care for healthcare professionals, direct care workers and family caregivers by enacting major recommendations from the IOM report. They would increase funding for grants in geriatrics at health professions schools and establish a national demonstration project to evaluate training requirements for direct-care workers.

"With the population of seniors in Wisconsin expected to increase dramatically in the next two decades, reform provisions to improve elder healthcare and make it more cost-effective - such as those Sen. Kohl has championed - are absolutely essential," said Michael Malone, MD, a Wisconsin geriatrician and member of the American Geriatrics Society Public Policy Committee. "We applaud his commitment to the health and wellbeing of older Americans, and the Senate's decision to move forward with debate over much needed healthcare reform."

Other provisions in the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would improve elder care call for establishing a Graduate Medical Education policy allowing unused training slots to be reallocated in ways that address shortages of - and boost seniors' access to - primary care providers. The Senate legislation would also reform Medicare payment policy so it more equitably reimburses those who care for older adults. Surveys have found that inequities in Medicare payment are a leading disincentive to pursuing careers in elder healthcare. The proposed legislation would address the deepening disparity in payments to geriatricians and other primary care providers through a ten-percent Medicare bonus payment for designated primary care services. And it would create a physician "value-based payment program" aimed at improving the quality of care beneficiaries receive.

In keeping with the Senate bill, Medicare would establish an "Innovation Center" to test new payment and care delivery approaches aimed at further enhancing the quality of care and reducing costs. Among other things it would facilitate demonstration projects to evaluate such promising models of care as those providing comprehensive geriatric assessments and care coordination for older patients with multiple chronic illnesses. These patients are among the sickest and most costly in the Medicare system and research suggests that this approach to their care can both improve outcomes and cut costs for these patients.

Other provisions in the Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are designed to improve seniors' health by eliminating beneficiaries' co-pays and deductibles for preventive care, by shrinking the Medicare drug plan's "donut hole" coverage gap, and by establishing new programs to lower hospital readmission rates among Medicare patients. The bill also calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategy for improving the quality of care provided through Medicare and other programs. In addition, the legislation would create a national commission to ensure that the nation's healthcare workforce meets America's needs.

ABOUT THE AGS
Founded in 1942, the American Geriatrics Society (www.americangeriatrics.org) is a non-profit organization of more than 6,400 healthcare professionals whose shared mission is to improve the health, independence and quality of life of older people. Our vision for the future is that all older adults will have access to quality healthcare that meets their unique needs. To achieve this, the Society focuses on: advancing eldercare research; enhancing clinical practice in eldercare; raising public awareness of the healthcare needs of older people; and advocating for public policy that ensures older adults access to quality, appropriate, cost-effective care. The Society is a pivotal force in shaping practices, policies and perspectives in the field.