Kathy Greenlee, Assistant Secretary for Aging

With the generous support of the SCAN Foundation, the Long Term Quality Alliance (LTQA) hosted a December 10 summit to explore community-based opportunities to improve the care and outcomes of people receiving long-term services and supports (LTSS) and their family caregivers. Consistent with the strategic priorities of the LTQA, this initial “innovative communities” meeting focused on critical transitions in health and LTSS that often are the sources of gaps in care and contribute to preventable human and societal burden.

Setting the stage for this summit were Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee, Deputy Medical Director for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Paul McGann, and the LTQA Board Chair Mary Naylor. More than 140 representatives from more than 20 communities across the country gathered with leaders of public and private health and LTSS organizations to learn about community-based best practices in LTSS in North Carolina, Vermont and Michigan. The meeting spurred highly productive conversations to explore opportunities for creating learning communities with specific ideas about the role of the LTQA as a neutral convener of such networks.

A consensus emerged among the participants that a transformative and urgent opportunity exists within communities to work to improve the integration of health and LTSS.

A summary of the proceedings will be available later this January, 2011.