The
Aging Network
Information Memoranda
INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
AOA-IM-98-05
TO: : STATE AND AREA AGENCIES ON
AGING AND TRIBAL ORGANIZATIONS ADMINISTERING PLANS UNDER TITLES
III AND VI OF THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED
SUBJECT: Teleconference on
Health Care Quality for Seniors
LEGAL AND RELATED : Older Americans
Act, as Amended
REFERENCES
The purpose of this memorandum is to invite
you to participate in and share information with service providers
and older Americans about a teleconference which will be nationally
broadcast from Washington, D.C. on Monday, December 15, 1997,
from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., EST. The subject of the teleconference
will be "Health Care Quality and Managed Care for Older Persons,"
and will be jointly sponsored by the Administration on Aging (AoA),
the SPRY (Setting Priorities for Senior Years) Foundation, the
Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Health Resources
and Services Administration, and other public and private organizations.
The teleconference will focus on issues
related to managed care and older people and will present the
results of a survey of health care quality for older people which
focused on the efficacy of flu and pneumonia vaccination programs
for seniors. Topics to be discussed include the importance of
educating seniors about their managed care choices; new initiatives
in community-based managed care for underserved populations; a
case study of immunizations programs for seniors; and how older
people can use performance measures to make decisions about managed
care plans.
This broadcast is part of a demonstration
to test the effectiveness of satellite television programming
in getting time-sensitive information to appropriate individuals
and organizations at the local level. The SPRY Foundation will
be working with seven down-link sites and a lead local organization
in each community to assure a diverse audience and to collect
data for analysis to determine the effectiveness of this forum.
A list of these sites and the lead organizations are attached
to this memorandum. A team from the University of Maryland will
develop the evaluation methodology and analyze data. In addition,
a toll-free telephone hook-up will allow audience members to ask
questions of the panel members during the forum. Follow-up sources
for more information will also be provided.
The AoA, the SPRY Foundation and the other
partners in this national forum believe that the information to
be presented in this broadcast is of interest to a wide-ranging
audience including seniors, their families, and a broad spectrum
of formal and informal caregivers. This live television broadcast
will be accessible to almost all community down-link sites in
the United States. These down-link sites frequently exist in local
community colleges and universities, chambers of commerce, armories,
hospitals, agricultural extension offices, movies theaters, and
other local institutions.
The AoA encourages you to work with organizations
in your community to identify, sponsor and/or host and advertise
the availability of down-link sites in their community as a public
service. The SPRY Foundation has posted information on its Internet
Home Page (www.spry.org) on how to down-link the satellite broadcast
as well as other information regarding the program and additional
referral information. Material from the home page can be printed
in advance and distributed to the local audience. The SPRY Foundation
will have an evaluation questionnaire on its Web site, which participants
may complete after the session.
Since the information to be provided will
be of interest to both older consumers and providers of service,
we suggest that the local audience be diverse. Audience participants
should include seniors and their families; agencies counseling
seniors about their health care; hospitals; nursing homes; assisted
living facilities; HMO's; physicians, nurses, pharmacists and
other professional groups; benefits advisors in local business
and labor unions; local representatives from government agencies,
including the HCFA, health departments, Area Agencies on Aging,
Social Security Offices and Agriculture Extension Offices; and
media representatives. We also suggest that you or other sponsoring
organizations consider the possibility of holding a discussion
session with your audience to talk about local options following
the formal broadcast.
Attached is a draft agenda for the forum,
including a list of invited speakers and their topics. We urge
you to share this information with others in your community to
make this a successful and exciting event.
EFFECTIVE DATE : Immediate
William F. Benson
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging
ATTACHMENTS
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