Announcing next phase of C-TAC Partnership with USAging to Enhance Services for People with Serious Illness
C-TAC members know that while we at C-TAC are single-minded in our mission to improve the lives of people facing serious illness, we are not trying to accomplish this goal single-handedly. We work closely with our members and partners to advance our goal using different avenues and approaches. We have a long-standing partnership with USAging, the national organization representing Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and advocating for the Title VI Native American Aging Programs. This partnership brings together USAging’s members with C-TAC’s diverse group of advanced illness experts from the provider, payer, policy, and consumer sectors. At the same time, we at C-TAC benefit from the valuable role that AAAs and aging and disability community-based organizations (CBOs) play in providing services and supports in the community for people with serious illness, including assessment, case management, care coordination, transportation, meals, caregiver support, and access to advance care planning (ACP) counseling.
We are pleased to announce a new project underway with USAging, one that will enable us to build deeper connections with the AAAs and other CBOs who work with people with serious illness. The project is part of a larger grant called Advancing Organizational Equity and Excellence through Sustainable Cross-Sector Partnerships. It is administered through USAging’s Aging and Disability Business Institute and funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation. This new project is in addition to the ongoing advocacy and education that C-TAC and USAging conduct together.
The overall goal of USAging’s multi-year project Advancing Organizational Equity and Excellence through Sustainable Cross-Sector Partnerships is to improve capacity of AAAs, CBOs, and community integrated health networks to serve older adults, people with disabilities and family caregivers. For the next three years, C-TAC will be working with USAging on specific activities to support AAAs’ work in contracting with health care entities to support older adults with serious illness, particularly helping to ensure that their health care preferences are understood and followed. Jon Broyles, CEO of C-TAC, said, “We are thrilled to be working closely with USAging’s Business Institute on this critically important project. Equity and Excellence should be the guiding principles for our health care system, and I believe that our partnership will be a model for how to accomplish this.”
The area of the project that relates to C-TAC’s work with USAging falls under the objective to “ensure AAA/CBO service excellence and sustainability through coding, competencies, standards, and national recognition.” This objective addresses, in part, the need to identify community-based models that are currently providing or accessing advance care planning services for older adults, increasing the community’s implementation of these models, and improving the community’s knowledge and advocacy around Medicare codes for ACP. A specific objective we are targeting is a 20% increase in AAA contracts to provide ACP (in 2021, AAAs and CBOs reported that 3.9% provided ACP services). Ultimately, this project will see long-term results based on changes in the knowledge base and behavior of the Aging Network. It should also be noted that C-TAC has developed a proposal to remove the Medicare patient cost-sharing for the ACP codes and ensure that clinical social workers are approved for the billing of these codes. USAging is a supporter of the bill and here is a link to the legislation and Senator Warner’s press release.
Our work on the USAging project has begun, and here are some of the activities that will enable C-TAC and USAging to work synergistically to reach our objectives. Below is the list with examples of preliminary strategies being discussed:
- Research Best Practices on Advance Care Planning.
- Identify best practices that our C-TAC partners are already applying to encourage ACP.
- Research what AAAs and CBOs are already doing in this area.
- Develop educational and training opportunities and resources for AAAs related to Advance Care Planning.
- Once we have determined best practices then we will discuss educational tools and training opportunities, including a pre-conference intensive planned for USAging’s 48th Annual Conference and Tradeshow in 2023.
- Develop shared goals and advocacy opportunities for the alignment of health and social care and for payment for AAA/CBO services.
- Mobilize the Aging Network on advocacy for proposals like the elimination of the copay for the ACP codes under Medicare.
- Participation in regular Business Institute partners calls and other meetings.
- Monthly meetings are already underway.
- Disseminate Business Institute resources, learning and survey opportunities through organizational communications channels, including web site, newsletter, and social media.
- We recently featured an in-depth interview with Sandy Markwood, CEO of USAging, on her reflections on C-TAC’s Core Principles for Models with Serious Illness Populations.
- The Aging and Disability Business Institute sends out a newsletter which can be a resource for C-TAC and USAging partnership news.
We are confident that the aforementioned work will lead to communities across the nation using the best approaches to support older adults with serious illness in their quest for health care and supports and services that accurately reflect their care preferences and honors their dignity.
National, state, and local policies are moving in the right direction to improve the lives of those impacted by serious illness. This year’s Summit will feature major policy influencers that are actively working to move the right levers to make positive change. As part of the movement, you need to be at the table, part of the conversation, and an active member of this influential community.
The C-TAC Summit will be a uniquely immersive, single-track experience of talks, panels, interviews, and roundtables in one large ballroom outfitted with an array of seating and conversation areas ensuring a mix of learning, sharing and networking.
