Partners in Care Foundation and California Association of Physician Groups Collaborate...

Partners in Care Foundation and California Association of Physician Groups Collaborate to Transform Healthcare for Older Adults with Chronic Conditions

SAN FERNANDO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Partners in Care Foundation, the program office for California's
evidence-based health promotion efforts, will join forces with the
California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG), the nation's
largest professional organization representing physician groups, to
expand the Healthier Living program which provides innovative
self-management methods for older adults with chronic conditions.

The Healthier Living Program was developed by Dr. Kate Lorig and
her colleagues at Stanford University in response to the fact that
people are living longer with chronic diseases such as diabetes,
arthritis, and heart disease. An evidence-based program, Healthier
Living has been extensively researched and proven to have significant
benefits for seniors including improved health, increased
independence, improved communication with physicians and fewer visits
to physicians and hospitals.

"The goal of Healthier Living is to offer older Americans, who
often suffer chronic health conditions, an opportunity to take control
of their health through behavior changes that have proven effective in
reducing the effects of disease and disability," said Jennifer
Wieckowski, Partners in Care Program Administrator for the State
Evidence-Based Initiative, and the Partners in Care California Health
Innovation Center (CHIC) dedicated to programs for "Aging Well."
"Unfortunately, many people with chronic conditions feel they lack the
skills to effectively manage their illness. Healthier Living is
designed to educate and support older adults to make behavior changes
so they can lead more active and satisfying lives."

Healthier Living consists of a series of six 2.5-hour workshops
presented over six weeks by two trained leaders, one or both of whom
have a chronic disease themselves. The highly scripted program deals
with the issues that face everyone living with an ongoing health
condition. These include managing medications, dealing with isolation
and depression, starting an exercise program, meeting goals and
communicating better with physicians.

"Healthier Living and other evidence-based health promotion
programs are transforming the way that health is managed. CAPG's
participation in this initiative adds the primary care referral
component to the mix - a cutting edge opportunity for health
promotion, prevention, early intervention and self management to set a
new standard of practice," said Don Crane, President and CEO of CAPG.
"Given that the US population age 65 and older is expected to more
than double to 72 million by 2030, expanding the reach of evidence
based programs like Healthier Living to promote self care also makes
good clinical and economic sense."

The three-year initiative will launch by first creating five "mini
networks" comprised of California community college older adult
programs, physician groups and county public health departments to
identify, refer and enroll older Californians into the workshops. The
goal is to enroll 9,525 older Californians in Healthier Living by
2011.

"As we improve the way health care is delivered, helping people
stay healthy by focusing on prevention, catching illnesses early and
minimizing complicating conditions that can become life threatening,
will enable us to achieve our fundamental goals - to ensure quality of
life while reducing the cost burden on the delivery system," noted W.
June Simmons, President and CEO of Partners in Care Foundation. "The
Healthier Living workshops provide a great resource to California's
older adult population, their families, healthcare providers and
communities through these evidence-based, proven methods."

Under funding awarded to California and seven other states by the
National Council on Aging and Atlantic Philanthropies, this initiative
will support collaborative efforts between Partners in Care, CAPG,
California Departments of Aging and Public Health, Kaiser Permanente
and other collaborative community partners to identify and recruit
leading physician groups to expand the reach of Healthier Living to
make it available to 60% of older Californians.

The CAPG collaboration will serve to identify best practices for
physician referrals to three non-credit community-based courses and
prepare tools for future expansion including physician group readiness
assessment, patient screening and referral criteria, education tools
for office/clinical staff, referral forms and fax back forms for
community based organizations. CAPG plans to educate large groups of
physicians about Healthier Living through statewide, regional and
medical policy meetings, e-mail updates to medical directors, and
newsletter/magazine articles, and that once physicians begin making
Healthier Living referrals for their managed care patients, it could
become a general standard of practice.

Kaiser Permanente has successful experience with physician
referrals to the Healthier Living program since 1997, and what Kaiser
Permanente has learned will be adapted and then applied by CAPG
members in more open systems. At least one physician group (Healthcare
Partners in Los Angeles) will adopt the Healthier Living internally by
becoming licensed by Stanford University and hosting Healthier Living
on-site, mirroring the Kaiser Permanente model.

Partners in Care Foundation is a San Fernando, California-based
non-profit healthcare and social services organization dedicated to
changing the shape of healthcare. In collaboration with its extensive
network of community-based and healthcare organizations, funders, and
supporters, Partners in Care initiates, develops, and tests innovative
new models of care in aging well, access to care, end-of-life care and
health promotion and disease interventions for diverse communities and
populations.

The California Association of Physician Groups (CAPG) is a
professional association committed to improving health care for
Californians. Based in Los Angeles and Sacramento, California, CAPG
membership is comprised of over 150 of California's leading physician
groups that employ or contract with approximately 59,000 physicians
who provide health care services to more than 15 million Californians
- more than 50% of California's health care.

Partners in Care Foundation
Kathy Abbott-Mayer, 818-837-3775 ext. 137
kabbottmayer@picf.org
or
California Association of Physician Groups
Kris Deutschman, 916-444-8801
kris@kdcgroup.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008