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Senior project manager Deana Smith to lead roundtable at American Society of Aging Conference

April 11, 2022 | CHRT News

Deana SmithCHRT’s senior project manager Deana Smith will lead a roundtable discussion at the American Society of Aging Conference, New Orleans, April 11-14, 2022. This conference is the largest multidisciplinary conference on aging in the U.S. This year’s theme is “Advancing Economic Security.”

Smith’s presentation, titled “Translating community-based work to payers for sustainability,” will describe early accomplishments in efforts to form a community integrated health network in Southeast Michigan. Smith will offer insights into the steps to take to be successful at both engaging with a health plan and functioning as a network.

Three lessons (handout) learned will be discussed:

  1. A backbone organization sets up the network for success. 
  2. Establishing a service delivery model is mutually beneficial to health payers and community-based organizations. 
  3. Strong partnerships with funders and health plans result in sustainable collaborations. 

In addition, this session is intended to foster an open dialogue around the challenges to this work, both at the community-based organization level and for payers and network lead entities.

Deana Smith is community initiatives senior project manager at CHRT. She is responsible for providing project management support to community-based collaborative initiatives and provides analytic support with a focus on the intersection between health care and supportive human services, with an emphasis on aging research and policy issues.