Introducing the Lineup for the New Commission on Long-Term Care

Last month, President Barack Obama named the final three members of the new 15-member Commission on Long-Term Care. And the clock started ticking. Two months earlier, lawmakers repealed the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act—legislation championed by the late Senator Edward Kennedy—which was to have created a nationwide, voluntary, long-term care insurance program for older adults and others in need of such care. In place of the CLASS Act, which had been deemed financially unviable, Congress called for the creation of the commission. It charged the new panel with developing a plan for a workable alternative to CLASS—in no more than 6 months.

The commission clearly has its work cut out for it. The 6-month period officially started the day on which the three final members were appointed. That was March 12. This means that by mid-September, the commissioners will have to come up with a substantive and specific plan identifying comprehensive and coordinated changes and reforms in long-term care policy, including changes in payment policies.

The good news is that many of the appointees to this important commission are leaders in the field. Congress stipulated that the President would appoint three members to the panel, and Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate would each choose another three. The final roster includes:

•    Henry Claypool, Executive Vice President of the American Association of People with Disabilities, and a former Department of Health and Human Services official.

•    Julian Harris, MD, MBA, Director of Massachusetts’ Office of Medicaid.

•    Carol Raphael, Vice Chair of the AARP’s board,  and former CEO of  the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

•    Bruce Chernof, MD, President and CEO of the SCAN Foundation, which focuses on senior issues. 

•    Judith Stein, JD, both founder and Executive Director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy,  and past co-director of Legal Assistance to Medicare Patients.

•    George Vradenburg, founder and Chair of USAgainstAlzheimer’s.

•    Javaid Anwar, MD, internist and former chair of Nevada’s Committee on Access to Health Care.

Laphonza Butler, president of the Service Employee’s International United (SEIU) Long-Term Care Workers’ union.

•    Judy Feder, expert in health policy, Urban Institute fellow, and professor of public policy and former dean at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

•    Judith Brachman, chair of  the Jewish Federation of North America’s Aging and Family Caregiving Committee, and former director of the Ohio Department of Aging.

•    Bruce Greenstein, Louisiana’s Secretary of Health and Hospitals, former official in  the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and previous managing director of worldwide health for Microsoft.

•    Stephen Guillard, Executive Vice President and COO of HCR Manor Care, the nation’s largest operator of skilled nursing facilities, and chairman of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, a trade group representing for-profit nursing home companies.

•    Neil Pruitt, chairman and CEO of UHS-Pruitt Corp, an integrated healthcare firm, and chair of the American Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing homes and other service providers for older adults.

•    Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a research organization focusing on free-market healthcare reform and tax policy.

•    Mark Warshawsky, pension expert directing retirement research, and former official with  the US Treasury Department.

Between now and September, the commission will need to draw on its collective expertise to accomplish a goal that has eluded previous panels given far more time. Fortunately, Dr. Chernof has identified a promising starting point for the group.

“A solid place for the commission to start is to define the one-to-two top policy goals for developing a national and rational long-term care financing strategy, and then quickly wrestle with the pros and cons of the core policy parameters and their potential configurations to carry it out,” he wrote in a recent Health Affairs blog. With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid estimating that 12 million older Americans will need long-term care by 2020—just 7 years from now—there’s no time to lose.