- Work For Oral Health Continues
- Center for Medicare Advocacy Welcomes Cinnamon St. John
- Last Chance to Register!
Work For Oral Health Continues
The Center for Medicare Advocacy is pleased to continue our longstanding partnership with the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, formally DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement, to advance our common goal of adding a comprehensive oral health benefit to Medicare, as part of our commitment to improving oral health for older people and people with disabilities.
The Center’s ongoing work will continue to focus on the push for comprehensive Medicare coverage for oral health care, including preventive services, while continuing work on the urgent need for medically essential oral health coverage. We will continue partnering with CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, and other medical and advocacy partners to move this issue forward.
Research demonstrates that oral health disparities exist for many racial and ethnic groups, by socioeconomic status, gender, age and geographic location. This underscores the need to approach oral health disparities as a component of social justice. CareQuest supports an approach to policy changes in oral health that respond to the social determinants of health. CareQuest recognizes that, in order to make strides in health equity, it is essential to address the disparities that are at the root of the problem. This is aligned with how the Center approaches policy solutions, so we are eager to continue this crucial work.
- More information on CareQuest Institute for Oral Health is available at: https://www.carequest.org/
Center for Medicare Advocacy Welcomes Cinnamon St. John
The Center for Medicare Advocacy is delighted to welcome Cinnamon St. John as our full-time Chiplin Medicare & Health Policy Fellow. Ms. St. John previously worked with the Center through a fellowship from the American Political Science Association (APSA). During that time, she authored an important paper regarding challenges and best practices for skilled nursing facility residents during the COVID pandemic, entitled Geography Is Not Destiny: Protecting Nursing Home Residents from the Next Pandemic
Most recently, Ms. St. John served as Associate Director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where she designed and managed programs focusing on ensuring optimal health and quality of life for older adults through interprofessional and patient education. Her work at HIGN helped train over 2,000 Bronx seniors on wellness and disease self-management, strengthened collaboration between a major NYC health system and community-based organizations, and drove the national and international dissemination of elder care training modules. She has also led the development of a strategic partnership between HIGN and a New York-based long-term care provider as part of the state’s “Workforce Investment Organization” (WIO) initiative. This program is helping to build and support a robust training infrastructure that will enhance the skills and advancement opportunities of long-term care workers in the region.
Prior to her APSA fellowship with the Center, Cinnamon served as an APSA fellow with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in the office of (then) Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine). While with the Senate Aging Committee, Ms. St. John helped inform policy and drive the oversight of legislation focused on improving the support infrastructure for older Americans, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s Disease.
As a former journalist, Cinnamon is passionate about increasing public awareness of the concerns of older adults, the challenges that our society faces in addressing those needs, and the opportunities we have to improve care for our aging population.
Ms. St. John received a Master’s of Public Administration from the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and an MA in International Peace and Security from King’s College London.
The Center is excited and grateful to have Cinnamon St. John joining our staff. She will focus on issues facing individuals with long-term care conditions, health equity matters – especially for people receiving care in in facilities – and continued concerns exposed by the COVID pandemic.
Thursday April 1, 2021, 1:00 PM EDT- 4:00 PM EDT
Registration closes today – Register now
To find out more about the full listing of the Summit’s topics and presenters, please click here.
We are honored to present 2021 Sen. Jay Rockefeller Lecturer
Dr. Donald Berwick
Dr. Berwick is a leading advocate and thought leader for high-quality, equitable health care. Dr. Berwick is currently President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and previously served as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Featuring speakers, panelists and moderators including Mary Ashkar (Senior Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy), Ben Belton (Director of Global Partner Engagement, AARP), Dr. Emily Cleveland Manchanda (Asst. Professor of Emergency Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine and Director for Equity Initiatives, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Boston Medical Center), Robert Espinoza (Vice President of Policy, PHI), Dr. Judith Feder (Georgetown University Professor and Center for Medicare Advocacy Board President), Amy Hall (Staff Director, Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives), Chris Jennings (President, Jennings Policy Strategies), Kata Kertesz (Policy Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy), Wey-Wey Kwok (Senior Attorney, Center for Medicare Advocacy), David Lipschutz (Associate Director, Center for Medicare Advocacy), Tricia Neuman (Senior Vice President for Medicare, Kaiser Family Foundation), Senator Jay Rockefeller, and Judith Stein(Executive Director, Center for Medicare Advocacy).
Two timely panels will address:
Challenges and Opportunities Facing Medicare and Health Care in the New Administration and Congress — This panel will explore issues such as Medicare solvency and coverage, the growing privatization of the program, and how these factors impact vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries. How do we advance fair access to quality health care through Medicare and other health coverage programs?
Acknowledging Health Disparities and Advancing Health Equity —This panel will consider how the pandemic has highlighted, and exacerbated, pre-existing disparities in access to quality health care. Panelists will discuss ways to address health care equity issues for all people who need health care, as well as for their caregivers and families.
Please visit our 2021 Summit page to REGISTER NOW
and for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the
National Voices of Medicare Summit & Sen. Jay Rockefeller Lecture
We are pleased to announce this program has been approved for continuing legal education credits for a maximum of 2.3 hours. Please see our Summit FAQs for more information.