Care for our nation’s most vulnerable older adults currently is costly and perilous. The price tag for high rates of avoidable hospital readmissions for older adults is estimated to exceed $17 billion annually. And the cost of care for older Americans through Medicare and Medicaid accounted for 36 percent of total health care spending in 2011. Meanwhile, more than 1.5 million adverse drug events occur each year, many due to preventable medication errors that are disproportionately occurring among older adults.

Since the 1990s, the Foundation has invested in the development, testing, and spread of effective and affordable models of care to address the obstacles that keep older Americans from getting the high-quality, cost-effective care they deserve.

Our support of the Center to Advance Palliative Care has helped spread palliative care to two-thirds of our nation’s hospitals. Several care models have been developed and disseminated, such as HomeMeds Medication Management, which uses technology to help frail older adults who live independently at home to manage their medications.

Under our new strategic direction, we continue to support innovative models of care, making it one of our top priorities.

We recognize that success will only be achieved through partnerships with philanthropy, health systems and government agencies, policymakers, providers, researchers, and older adults and their families. Working together, we aim to make evidence-based models that deliver quality care with better outcomes at a lower cost accessible to older Americans who need them.

• The Foundation will use what it has learned in its 30 years to speed the spread of proven models of care, whether developed with Foundation support or not.
• And, while the costs are high and the timeline can be long, we will support efforts to develop and test new models of care when they address urgent gaps in current care.