Long-Term Care
Expert Becomes SPP Distinguished Fellow
Dean
Kingsley Haynes has invited Dr. Mark Meiners,
the new Director of the College of Nursing
and Health Science’s (CNHS) Center
for Health Policy Research and Ethics, to
serve
as a Distinguished Senior Fellow for SPP.
“This relationship
will result in better linkages between SPP
and CNHS. For example, Dr. Meiners’ appointment
will help CNHS and SPP to launch their joint
Graduate Certificate in Medical and Health
Policy, which we believe, will serve students
in both programs and external clients in the
Health Care sector. As a senior scholar in
this area, his addition to the University could
not come at a better time,” Haynes said.
Meiners added, “This
appointment helps create an affiliation between
the Center for Health Policy, Research and Ethics
and SPP. We have a lot of interests in common.” |
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Dr. Mark Meiners |
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Meiners’ strong interest in public policy
issues actually attracted him to the position. “The
job provides me with an opportunity to be involved
in an array of issues and to attract colleagues who
can compliment my interests, including professors
at SPP,” he said.
Meiners, who came to Mason in October, is nationally
recognized as one of the leading experts on financing
and program development in long-term care. His path-breaking
research on long-term care insurance has been a major
catalyst to the current interest in this topic and
his work on Medicare/Medicaid integration has helped
advance chronic care improvement strategies for aged
and disabled populations.
As he eases into his new post, Meiners hopes to
share some of his research interests and projects
with members of the SPP faculty. “I will
be looking for research, program development and
educational opportunities to work together,” he
explained. “Our area is health and health
care and I’m hoping we can work with SPP
to go after funding and work with each others’ students
to create multi- and interdisciplinary approaches
to health and health care.”
Meiners is especially anxious to begin collaborating
with SPP on the Medicare/Medicaid Integration Program
for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an initiative
designed to help states develop new systems that
better coordinate acute and long-term care.
As the National Program Director of the Integration
Program, Meiners wants to work with SPP and others
to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Medicaid
and Medicare subscribers, including the very poor
and those in need of prescription drugs for chronic
illnesses.
Meiners believes that a relationship between CNHS
and SPP is a natural and complimentary fit – one
that could benefit professors as well as students
in both programs. “I think the skills associated
with health services research are very important
because they allow students to think scientifically
about problem solving,” he said, adding, “Translating
evidence into good public policy decision making
is important too, and there’s a crying need
for new ideas and better understanding of old ideas.
So research and public policy go together in that
way.”
Prior to joining GMU, Meiners was Associate Professor
and Associate Director of the University of Maryland
Center on Aging for 17 years. In addition he has
led the Partnership for Long-Term Care, an innovative
state-based long-term care insurance program, since
its beginning in 1987.
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