During my six week tenure at the Center for Medicare Advocacy I had three key obligations: to create a research report which will be used as a reference guide for the Center after my departure, to attend Senate hearings and other group meetings for the Center, and to learn about advocacy, government, and the Medicare program.
The majority of my time at the Center was spent developing my project on Coordinated Care, which is defined as care that “avoids service duplications, enhances efficient care, and precludes gaps in care. Coordinated Care means all information pertaining to the patient is integrated and easily retrievable.” Currently Medicare does not offer any form of Coordinated Care to its beneficiaries, but it is considering adding the benefit. Their reasoning is that a Coordinated Care Benefit will cause chronically ill beneficiaries to remain healthier, and out of hospitals. The purpose of my report was to compare recommendations from two private reports with those of CMS’ demonstration projects. The project was also meant to gauge the success of CMS Coordinated Care demonstration projects in the areas of finance and quality of care, and conclude whether the recommendations made in the private reports were more or less viable than the systems tested by CMS.
The Staff was very helpful in guiding me through my research. Prior to this summer “Coordinated Care” was a foreign term to me. Somebody was always available to answer a question, explain a term, or edit a paper. In addition to this project, I also attended meetings for the Center. This included crucial Senate committee meetings for the Special Committee on Aging and the Health. I suggest any future intern to seize every opportunity to attend meetings and be as “hands on” as possible. It was very interesting visiting the committee meetings, seeing how they function and even getting to see my own Senator in action.
As I leave my internship I have no criticisms. I feel that this summer I have done my share to help advocate for the very best care.
Jamie Levitt
Undergraduate Machon Kaplan Intern
Summer 2005