N4A Staff, Mary Kaschak

Mary Kaschak – Executive Director

Ms. Kaschak is Executive Director of the Long-Term Quality Alliance in Washington, DC.  She comes to the Alliance with ten years of experience in aging and health policy, most recently as Deputy Director of the Aging and Disability Business Institute at the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a).  At the Business Institute, Ms. Kaschak played a lead role in advancing the readiness and business acumen of community-based organizations (CBOs) to successfully engage in the design and delivery of integrated care systems for older adults and younger adults with disabilities.  Ms. Kaschak’s responsibilities at the Business Institute included business development, grant management, and oversight of day-to-day operations.

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Prior to her time with the Business Institute, Ms. Kaschak worked with n4a in several other capacities.  She served as n4a’s Senior Program Manager of Capacity Building and Integrated Care, Program Manager of CBO Capacity Development, and Program Coordinator of Medicare and Benefits Outreach.  Ms. Kaschak studied Gerontology at Miami University.

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G. Lawrence Atkins – Research Director

Dr. Atkins is Research Director of the Long-Term Quality Alliance in Washington, DC. He is a Board member and immediate past-President of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He was recently the Staff Director of the federal Commission on Long-Term Care, which issued its final report in September 2013. Prior to that, he was Executive Director, U.S. Public Policy at the global pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck.

Dr. Atkins is a veteran of more than 30 years of health and social policy analysis, policy development, and legislative representation at the local, state, and federal levels. He directed Public Policy at Schering-Plough Corporation; was founder and President of Health Policy Analysts, Inc., a firm providing consultation on pharmaceutical, health benefits, and health care reimbursement issues; was Executive Director of the Corporate Health Care Coalition, an alliance of Fortune 100 companies on federal and state health reform issues; and headed a health and benefits policy practice in the Washington office of the New York law firm Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts. During the 1990s, Dr. Atkins served on two quadrennial Social Security Advisory Commissions – 1991 as a Commission member and 1995 as a member of the Technical Panel.

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During the 1980s, Dr. Atkins served on the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging as professional staff, Deputy Staff Director and Republican Staff Director for Chairman John Heinz (R-PA), and advised Senator Heinz as a member of the Senate Finance Committee on retirement income and health policy matters, and as a member of the 1983 National Commission on Social Security Reform. Prior to his work in the Congress, Dr. Atkins developed health and human services policy at the state and local government levels.

Dr. Atkins holds a Ph.D. from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, where he is currently a member of the Board of Overseers. He holds master degrees from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, and an undergraduate degree from Kenyon College.

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Jared Hite

Jared Hite – Policy Analyst

Jared Hite is a Policy Analyst, contributing his skills and experience to LTQA research, working groups, and events. He also takes a lead with member engagement and communication.

Jared’s previous health policy research has covered Medicare palliative and hospice services, pharmaceutical affordability, and state efforts to reduce health disparities. Before joining LTQA, Jared interned with AcademyHealth and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Jared has a Master of Public Policy and Master of Business Administration from Brandeis University’s Heller School, where he focused on healthcare policy. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandeis University in Philosophy.

Anne Tumlinson – Consultant

Anne Tumlinson has over two decades of research and consulting experience in post-acute and long-term care financing and delivery.  Her consulting firm, Anne Tumlinson Innovations, helps organizations respond to demographic changes and delivery system reform, with a special emphasis on addressing gaps in financing for long-term services and supports for older adults with long-term care need. Her research focuses on measuring the impact on Medicare acute spending of managing the long-term social supports and services needs of frail older adults.  Anne has testified before Congress and appeared before the Long-Term Care Commission, and the Bipartisan Policy Center.

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Anne has also created a consumer website, www.daughterhood.org, to generate better content and information for consumers navigating the health and elder care systems on behalf of their parents; and to create a community of women who can educate and inform each other.  The daughterhood blog is distributed to subscribers, HuffPost50 readers and MariaShriver.com readers, as well as to a growing social media following.  In support of this work, Anne researches, writes and speaks about innovation in aging services product and content design, with blogs in Health Affairs and McKnights.

Anne served previously as a Senior Vice President at Avalere Health, where she founded and led Avalere’s post-acute and long-term care consulting practice for 14 years. There she created, developed and launched a data-based provider navigation tool to improve collaboration and coordination between hospitals and post-acute care providers in making discharge placement decisions for frail older adults. She led many analytic and modeling projects that analyzed the impact of functional impairment on health care spending. Prior to that, she led Medicaid program oversight at the federal Office of Management and Budget, conducted health services research at LifePlans, Inc and worked as a health and aging policy aide for Congressman John Lewis (D-GA). She earned a Masters in Human Services Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University.

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Lois Simon – Consultant

Lois Simon is the Founder and Principal of L. Simon Solutions LLC, a healthcare integration strategies consulting firm based in Boston, MA. She was also the Co-Founder of Commonwealth Care Alliance and its former President. Commonwealth Care Alliance is a nationally recognized pioneer in the design and operation of programs integrating Medicare and Medicaid financing and service delivery for populations with complex needs: elders and individuals with disabilities across the age spectrum. Lois has had extensive experience with achieving desired care and cost outcomes by designing approaches to integrate Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) and behavioral health with medical care.

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Lois has over three decades of leadership experience serving complex and high cost government supported populations in clinical program development, government service and executive management roles. Lois served in a variety of Massachusetts government positions, most notably as the Director of Long Term Care for the Medicaid program and as the Assistant Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs responsible for the agency’s vast array of programs. She went on to serve as Senior Vice President and Regional General Manager for The Mentor Network, a national leader in health and human services providing home and community based services to individuals with disabilities. Lois served as Chief Operating Officer at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center where, among her responsibilities, she oversaw the management of the home care program and the Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). She also served on the executive leadership team at Neighborhood Health Plan, a large Medicaid Managed Care Organization in Massachusetts, overseeing care management and care delivery services.

Lois received her Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in Health Systems from the Boston University School of Public Health, from whom she received a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015. She has served on boards of local, statewide and national organizations and has provided consultancy services to a diverse array of organizations across the country.

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Henry Claypool – Consultant

Henry Claypool is the former Director of the Health and Human Services Office on Disability and a founding Principal Deputy Administrator of the Administration for Community Living. He also served as a presidentially-appointed member of the Federal Commission on Long-Term Care, advising Congress on how long-term care can be better provided and financed for the nation’s older adults and people with disabilities, now and in the future, and was Executive Vice President of the American Association of People with Disabilities, which promotes equal opportunity, economic power, independent living and political participation for people with disabilities. He is Affiliated Faculty at the Institute for Health & Aging at UCSF and principal of Claypool Consulting.

Jennifer Windh – Consultant

Jennifer Windh has expertise in the fields of healthcare and aging. Jennifer serves as the primary investigator for LTQA’s “Developing the Business Case for LTSS Integration” research project.

Prior to joining LTQA, Jennifer held analyst positions at The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and McKinsey & Co. While at Pew, she led the development of the Improving End-of-Life Care project: an initiative to advance federal policies that support high-quality care for individuals who are seriously ill.

Jennifer received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Duke University, and holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgia State University.