UMaine Center on Aging to Host National Healthcare Advisory Committee on Fact-Finding Mission
Contact: Len Kaye, 581-3483; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO – It’s a long way between the people in rural Maine communities and national healthcare policy-makers in Washington, D.C., but a blue ribbon committee serving as eyes and ears for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be in Camden, Maine on June 11-13, looking for advice.
The UMaine Center on Aging is hosting the fifty-third community meeting of the committee that advises the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on issues affecting people and health care practitioners in rural communities. The field meetings of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services (NACRHHS) are an important part of the committee’s efforts to advise federal policy-makers on how to tailor Medicare and Medicaid, among other programs, to meet rural healthcare needs throughout the country.
The meetings provide an opportunity for the 21-member committee to gather information for its annual report from rural providers and citizens. The 2007 report will focus on three key issues: Medicare Advantage in rural communities, Head Start in rural areas and substance abuse in rural areas.
Previous committee recommendations have included increasing federal funding to provide more and better obstetric and dental care in rural communities, and also to combat obesity-related illnesses by convincing states to classify obesity as an illness and allow treatment procedures to be covered by state and federal healthcare programs.
Len Kaye, director of the Center on Aging and the only member of the committee from New England, says it is rare for the committee to hold one of its three annual information-gathering meetings in Maine. He welcomes the visit.
“Maine is perfectly positioned because of this visit of the committee to contribute in significant ways to the major policy discussions of the day being held on the delivery of health and human services in rural America,” he says. “Opportunities like this don’t come along all that frequently. We intend to take full advantage of this visit by the committee to share both the challenges we face and the innovative solutions we have discovered in delivering health and human services to the citizens of Maine.”
The meeting is scheduled to begin Sunday, June 11 at 1:30 p.m. and conclude Tuesday, June 13 at 11 a.m. Most of the meeting sessions will take place at the Camden Opera House and are open to the general public. After two days of presentations and expert testimony from researchers and service providers, the meeting will be open for public comment at 5 p.m. June 12 and at 10:30 a.m. on June 13.
Scheduled speakers presenting testimony include: Richard Barringer, research professor in planning, development and environment at the University of Southern Maine; Kimberly Johnson, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse; David Hartley, director of the Maine Rural Health Research Center within the Muskie School of Public Service at USM; Stephen Gilson, professor, Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies at the University of Maine; Deborah Totten, assistant director of Action for Older Persons, Inc.; Carolyn Drugge, director of the Maine Office of Child Care and Head Start; and George Siriotis and Laura Schuntermann of Anthem/Blue Cross.
Two field site visits are scheduled for committee members and guests, one at the Bucksport Community Health Advisory Committee and at the Head Start and Children and Family Opportunities of Washington & Hancock Counties, in Ellsworth.
Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems is sponsoring a special reception for NACRHHS members, federal staff and guests in Waldoboro on June 12. EMHS is the regional healthcare system serving all of central, eastern and northern Maine, with many of its services directed at meeting the needs of citizens residing in the most rural regions of the state.
The National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services is a citizens’ panel of nationally recognized experts, chartered in 1987 to advise the Secretary of Health and Human Services on ways to address health care problems in rural America. Chaired by former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, the committee’s private and public-sector members reflect wide-ranging, first-hand experience with rural issues in medicine, nursing, administration, finance, law, research, business and public health.
More information about the NACRHHS, including previous meeting minutes and recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services, is available on the organization’s website.
The agenda for the NACRHHS meeting in Camden, in a PDF format, can be found on the Center on Aging website at http://www.umaine.edu/mainecenteronaging/