July 2013

Call for Applications for Practice Change Leaders

Applications for the second cohort of the Practice Change Leaders for Aging and Health (PCL) program are being accepted through Sept. 23, 2013. PCL is a national program to develop, support, and expand the influence of organizational leaders who are committed to achieving transformative improvements in care for older adults. The program is jointly supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John A. Hartford Foundation.

To learn more about the program and download an application, please visit www.changeleaders.org or read Chris Langston’s Health AGEnda blog post.

CMS Proposes Complex Chronic Care Management Services Benefit

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is considering paying primary-care physicians for complex chronic care management services of Medicare patients without an in-person patient visit, among several policy changes in the CMS-proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2014 . The proposed changes are available for public comment until Sept. 6, 2013.

For more information, read Chris Langston’s Health AGEnda blog post.

Hartford Grantees Featured in National Media

Hartford grantee, Beeson Scholar, and Care Transitions Intervention developer Eric Coleman is featured in "More on Preventing Hospital Readmissions" on The New York Times blog The New Old Age and in "How to Keep Older Patients from Returning to the Hospital" by Reuters columnist Mark Miller. And an Associated Press article on how home repairs can help older adults remain independent features the research project led by Sarah Szanton, PhD, a former Hartford nursing scholar and a Johns Hopkins University associate nursing professor.

Health AGEnda Highlights

Among recent posts on our Health AGEnda blog: Marcus Escobedo remembers Dr. David Solomon, one of the giants of American medicine and a founder of modern geriatrics. Nora OBrien-Suric shares a real-life story of two geriatric social workers whose love for working with older adults led to their love for each other. And Chris Langston defends the much-criticized Medicare readmissions reduction program, arguing that it injects much-needed urgency into the move to address shortcomings in the health care system that have gone on for far too long.

These are just a few of the compelling posts featured twice a week on Health AGEnda. Don't want to miss a post? Subscribe through RSS or e-mail. You can also follow the Hartford Foundation and the blog via Facebook.

For more on what's happening in aging and health, visit our News and Events sections on jhartfound.org.

Communications Tip: Webinar Recordings

If you weren’t able to participate in the webinars the Hartford Foundation has hosted over the past few months, don’t despair! Several of them were recorded and can be found on BandwidthOnline.org:

Using Twitter for Professional Purposes attempts to demystify Twitter and provide information on how to use it to advance your field and your career.

Thinking Diffusion: Moving a Promising Idea into Practice, with Gary Oftedahl, MD, presents an adaptive approach to diffusion, including identifying the challenges and opportunities involved and what works and what doesn't.

Better Slides, Better Presentations…Better Communication offers tips for improving your presentations.

Check these out and stay tuned for details about our fall communications webinar line-up.