Town Hall Meeting
March 2006
A town hall meeting sponsored by OMNI Home Care and Baldwin Wallace College near Cleveland, offered more than 100 people a peek into the future of healthcare for America's elderly.
The meeting was held on Sat., Jan. 21, at Baldwin Wallace College. The meeting featured a top-flight panel of experts including: State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, director of Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at Baldwin- Wallace College; State Sen. Robert Spada; Ron Hill, executive director of The Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging; Melvin Pye, administrator of Fairfax nursing home in Cleveland and Shirley Simon, an attorney familiar with the issues affecting the elderly. Congressman and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was invited, but unable to attend and legislative aide, Vic Edgarton took his place. Omni Home Care's Performance Improvement Coordinator, Nickie Stary, was especially helpful with answering questions specifically involving Medicare Part D.
The meeting fulfilled three objectives:
- identifying policy issues
- discussing the purpose of Medicare Part D and
- educating participants on the financial impact of changes in healthcare services on the elderly.
OMNI Cleveland Administrator Cynthia Sil called the event a success.
"A broad cross-section of people showed up from senior citizens, college students to health care professionals, and CEOs and General Managers. The audience had many excellent questions all of which were answered by the panel to the best of their ability," she said.