Delegates tackle new aging strategies at White House conference

White Conference on Aging delegates spent Tuesday devising ways to implement 50 resolutions they had approved less than 24 hours earlier. The nation's largest nursing home association reported that 26 of the 30 resolutions it had supported were approved, including nine it had specifically targeted.

Typical on Tuesday was a session that addressed a resolution to improve financing and options for long-term care. Eighteen implementation strategies were created for that resolution, and six will be forwarded to the conference policy committee. The strategies stress more coordinated oversight, greater state flexibility and more consumer choice.

The 17-member policy committee will craft a final report for Congress that addresses specific resolutions and ways to make them happen.

The WHCOA occurs just once every 10 years and was set to close its four-day run today in Washington. Major programs such as Medicare and Medicaid attribute their origins, at least in part, to past versions of this august collection of experts on the elderly.