PALTC23 Conference Recordings SA01 General Session III: Health Policy 2023

Michael Wasserman, MD, CMD, is a graduate of the University of Texas, Medical Branch. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Wasserman has been a tireless advocate for vulnerable older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, with multiple peer reviewed publications and television appearances. He is involved with the National Advisory Committee on Seniora and Disasters and previously served as a member of the National Academy of Science’s “A Framework for Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus” Committee. He is Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s upcoming textbook, Geriatric Medicine: A Person Centered Evidence Based Approach. He previously served as CEO overseeing the largest nursing home chain in California. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director, Care Continuum, for the CMS contracted Quality Improvement Organization for California. In 2001, he co-founded Senior Care of Colorado, which became the largest privately owned primary care geriatrics practice in the country, before selling it in 2010. In the 1990’s he was President and Chief Medical Officer for GeriMed of America, a Geriatric Medical Management Company, and developed GeriMed’s Clinical Glidepaths in conjunction with Drs. Flaherty and Morley of St. Louis University’s School of Medicine Geriatric Division. In 1989, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Doctor Wasserman published "Fever, White Blood Cells and Differential Count in Diagnosing Bacterial Infection in the Elderly,” the findings of which are now part of the McGeer Criteria, used widely in nursing homes to evaluate residents for infections.

Thomas Lehner, MD, FAAFP, CMD, is a Family Physician from Wadsworth Ohio. He is also the Medical Director for four LTC Facilities and Gentiva Hospice in NEO. Mr. Lehner has been a member of AMDA and a CMD since 1997. His hobbies are flying, classic cars and motorsports.

Isaac Longobardi, BA, is a recent graduate of Harvard College. He currently serves as Associate Director of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition. Previously, he worked as Program Coordinator for the Hebrew SeniorLife Volunteer, Youth, and Community Engagement Department, while piloting multigenerational living at Center Communities of Brookline, one of Hebrew SeniorLife’s independent living communities.

Alex Bardakh, MPP, is the Senior Director, Advocacy and Strategic Partnerships at PALTmed. Mr. Bardakh works for the assocation's extensive Public Policy agenda through Advocacy in Congress and numerous Federal Agencies. A graduate from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in Political Science/Psychology and Master’s Degree in Public and Legal Policy, Mr. Bardakh has extensive experience in health policy with a specific focus on areas such as payment models and quality of care initiatives. He has been a recognized national speaker on healthcare policy and has spoken at national conferences throughout the country.

Cynthia Morton, MPA, joined NASL as the Executive Vice President in September of 2010 and has led the organization to advocate for high quality care for the patients NASL members serve through working to advance legislative and regulatory policy. Prior to joining NASL, Ms. Morton served as the Vice President for Political Affairs for the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living. For more than a decade with AHCA/NCAL, she represented the long term care profession before Congress, the Washington health care community, and the media. She also was responsible for lobbying, political strategy and building relationships with Members of Congress and developed policy and positions primarily on Medicaid and related long term care issues such as provider tax, intergovernmental transfers, dual eligibles, ICF/MR and developmental disability issues, Medicaid block grants, waivers and long term care financing reform. She graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science in political science and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Alice Bonner, PhD, RN, FAAN, has been a nurse practitioner for over 30 years. She is currently Senior Advisor for Aging at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Chair of Moving Forward: Nursing Home Quality Coalition. From 2015-2019, Dr. Bonner served as Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Bonner served as Director of the Division of Nursing Homes in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Baltimore, MD.

Timothy Holahan, DO, CMD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care. He is a certified medical director and has provided care in multiple nursing homes in the Rochester NY area. He specializes in complex SNF patients and is the medical director of the Monroe Community Hospital SNF long term ventilator unit. He is currently the Chair of the AMDA Ethics Committee and Vice Chair of the AMDA Public Policy Committee.

Elizabeth White, APRN, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health. Her research agenda broadly focuses on understanding how frail medically-complex older adults receive healthcare services, and how factors affecting the nursing and primary care workforces impact quality outcomes in long-term care. She is a co-investigator on currently funded projects to evaluate the impact of Medicare’s new Patient Driven Payment Model on nursing home care quality, staffing, and costs; to explore the role of advanced practice clinicians in end-of-life care for individuals with dementia; and to examine various aspects of COVID-19 management, treatment, and outcomes in nursing homes. Dr. White completed an AHRQ T32 postdoctoral fellowship at Brown in the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, and an NINR T32 predoctoral fellowship in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. In addition to her research, Dr. White is a board-certified adult geriatric primary care nurse practitioner with extensive clinical experience in long-term care, primary care, and acute care. She currently practices as a nurse practitioner at the PACE Organization of Rhode Island.

Christopher Laxton, CAE, is a career association professional with 35 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, governance and operations. Laxton was appointed Executive Director of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine in February, 2013. In addition to his role at AMDA, Mr. Laxton serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Advancing Excellence in Long-Term Care Coalition, and as a Board member of the Center for Excellence in Assisted Living. From 2008 until the present, Mr. Laxton has served as a National Examiner on the Board of Examiners for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest award for organizational performance excellence. He was designated a Master Examiner, and appointed to the Judges’ Panel for the Baldrige Award, earlier this year.

Dallas Nelson, MD, CMD, FACP, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of the Rochester in the Division Geriatrics and Aging. She is medical director of the UR Medicine Geriatrics Group, a group that serves about 3000 patients across the spectrum of long term care in the Rochester, New York.  Dr. Nelson serves as a leader of Telehealth sub-committee for Society of Post-Acute and Long Term Care Medicine.  Dr. Nelson has published clinical trials on the use of Telemedicine to reduce Emergency Department Use by Geriatric Homes.  She has a passion for improving the care of the geriatric community.

Victoria Walker, MD, CMD, FAAFP, is the Medical and Clinical Officer for the Avera eCARE Senior Care telemedicine program. She provides support and direction to an interdisciplinary team that supports nursing home staff and residents of post acute, long term care and assisted living in 24 states. Dr. Walker is also a Clinical professor of Family Medicine at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. She currently serves on the AMDA Board of Directors, the Clinical Issues Subcommittee of the Public Policy Committee, the Telemedicine Workgroup and the Education workgroup for the North Central Society of PALTC.

Christian Bergman, MD, CMD, is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. He attended medical school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA and completed his internal medicine residency and geriatric medicine fellowship at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA where he specialized in post-acute and long-term care medicine. His clinical practice focuses on post-acute and long-term care medicine with active medical directorship. He is assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA where he is focusing on improving transitions of care and is actively involved in teaching trainees at all levels. At AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine – he is chair of the State Based Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee and chair of the Transitions of Care Subcommittee. He lives in Richmond, VA with his wife and two kids and enjoys spending time on home improvement projects.