Keynote and General Session Speakers
Wednesday, 8:30-11:30am Washington State Convention Center
The Honorable
Robert J. Dole
 Senator Robert J. Dole will be remembered as one of the giants of 20th Century America. He is a hero in every sense of the word, a man who has consistently devoted his life to the service of others.
He was raised in Russell, Kansas. He volunteered for military service and was assigned to the Tenth Mountain Division in Italy during World War II. He was gravely wounded on the battlefield and twice decorated for his heroic achievements. His battle to overcome adversity and to rehabilitate himself in the face of severe injuries was the subject of a 2005 autobiography, One Soldier's Story. This best selling book is a tribute to those who defended liberty in its darkest hour, and brings hope and inspiration to all who read it.
After his recovery, Bob Dole selected a career in public service, first with ten years in the House of Representatives and then 26 years in the United States Senate. His achievements in Congress are nothing short of legendary. He became Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction of all tax and trade legislation including such issues as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He twice became Senate Majority Leader, making him one of the three most powerful people in America.
Bob Dole never forgot his roots. He was throughout the champion of the farmer, the small businessman, of veterans and vulnerable groups such as the aged, infirm, disabled and dying Americans. Two of his proudest achievements include the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the enactment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, both of which were accomplished in tandem with his great friend and Democratic Leader in the Senate, George Mitchell. President Ronald Reagan said of Dole, "Leader is not just a job title; it is a description of a man."
Bob Dole's ability to lead brought him the Chairmanship of the Republican Party and his party's nomination for Vice President. Later, in 1996, he resigned his post in the U.S. Senate to campaign as the Republican Party's candidate for President. Although he lost to the incumbent President Bill Clinton, the two have remained great friends. In 1996, President Clinton awarded Senator Dole the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor.
While leaving the U.S. Senate was difficult after 26 years, Senator Dole found there were many things he could do to help others. He agreed to be Chairman of the National World War II Memorial and raised over $170 million for this monument to those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect American freedoms. Following September 11, he joined with former President Bill Clinton to raise millions for the victims of that tragedy and their families. In 2003, he agreed to co-chair President Bush's President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. In this same year he agreed to serve as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Caring Institute an organization inspired by Mother Teresa which seeks to promote the values of caring, integrity and public service.
As noted above, Senator Dole is an author. His other two books are on political humor: Great Presidential Wit, I Wish I was in this Book and Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House. Dole is a frequent guest on late night talk shows, the star of two Super Bowl commercials and is a renowned political commentator. He is a strong advocate of hospice and home care and serves as Counsel to NAHC. In 2003, he played a central role in helping to defeat an onerous co-payment provision pending in legislation that would have severely limited access of Medicare beneficiaries to home health benefits. He is married to the Honorable Elizabeth Dole, the current Senator from North Carolina.
The Honorable
George J. Mitchell
Closing General Session Keynote Speaker
 Senator George Mitchell is one of the greatest citizens that America has produced since its Independence in 1776. He is known around the world for his intellect, his integrity, his work ethic and his passion to improve the quality of life for others. No one has served with more distinction than the U.S. Senate and no one has contributed more to world peace. His contributions to the betterment of humanity, after leaving the Senate, are as impressive as or more impressive than those he made when he was in public office.
The Senator has clearly lived out his father's advice: "Remember that every human being has an obligation to help other humans in need and the more successful you are the greater the obligation."
Mitchell began his Senate work as Executive Assistant to Senator Edmund S. Muskie from 1962-1965 and then returned to private practice until he was appointed US Attorney for Maine in 1977. He held this post until he was appointed US District Judge. He resigned to fill the unexpired term of Senator Muskie, who had been appointed Secretary of State. He was elected to the Senate in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. In January 1989, he was elected to the post of the Senate Majority Leader which he held until he left the Senate in 1995.
During his career, Senator Mitchell was one of the nation's strongest champions of the environment. He led the fight to enact the Clean Air Act including new controls for acid rain toxins. He authored legislation the national oil spill prevention and clean up law. He was instrumental in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities legislation, extending civil rights protections to the disabled. He also led efforts to help expand higher education and to create a level playing field in trade, opening markets that were closed to the U.S. through the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
From his earliest days in the Senate, Mitchell was one of the foremost advocates of older Americans. He fought to preserve and extend Social Security and helped Senators Muskie and Frank E. Moss to enact Medicare and include therein the Medicare home health benefit. Years later he worked with Congressman Claude Pepper and with Senator Robert Dole to amend Medicare to include a hospice benefit.
Senator Mitchell today serves as Chairman of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, the third largest law firm in the world. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Company. He is also Chancellor of The Queen's University of Northern Ireland. He previously served
as Chairman of the non-profit International Crisis Group and as Chairman of the International Commission on Disarmament of Northern Ireland. Working on a pro-bono basis, he was the independent overseer of the American Red Cross Liberty Disaster Relief Fund, an organization formed to help victims of the 9/11 attacks.
At the request of President Bill Clinton and Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Senator Mitchell served asChairman of an international fact-finding committee of violence in the Middle East. The committee's recommendation, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush Administration, the European Union and many other governments. Recently, Senator Mitchell served as co-Chair (with former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich) of the Task Force on the United Nations, which was created by and reported to the U.S. Congress.
Senator Mitchell is the author of four books including Men of Zeal, co-authored with his colleague, then-Senator William S. Cohen and World on Fire. He has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him by President Bill Clinton and a National Caring Award in 2002.
Dr. Robert Fazzi & Robert V. Agoglia
Authors, Consultants and Advisers to the Health Care Industry, Experts on Home Care & Hospice
 Dr. Robert Fazzi is President and Chief Executive Officer of Fazzi Associates. He has been involved with the health care and home care fields for over 25 years. Prior to establishing his firm, Bob was also the former President/CEO of the Center for Human Development, one of the largest health and human service agencies in New England.
Bob today is one of the most respected people in the home care and hospice field. In addition to providing consulting and organizational services to agencies throughout the country, he has been deeply involved in operational and best practice research studies. He was the Co-Director of the National Best Practice Study and the National 3M Expert Design Project. Most recently, he has served as the co-director of the National Business Operational Benchmark Study National OASIS Integrity Project, the study which is the subject of this report.
Bob is a teacher, lecturer, futurist and writer on an array of management, customer service, planning and future trend related issues. He is the author of numerous training tools and has published a broad range of articles including many that have appeared in Caring magazine and the Remington Report. He is the author of a number of books including Management Plus, a book on supervisory management published by McGraw Hill and named as the main selection of Fortune Magazine's Book of the Month Club.
Robert V. Agoglia is a principal at Fazzi Associates, Inc. He provides consulting services to home care associations and agencies nation-wide in the areas of strategic planning, mergers, affiliations, management development, and organizational change. He has led several national studies including Re-Engineering Strategies for IPS, PPS, and Managed Care, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National 3M PPS Expert Design Project, Fazzi Associates' National Operational Benchmark Study. He has responsibility for leading the study which is the subject of this session. He co-authored articles on all of the studies that were published in Caring and other national home care publications. In addition to his consulting practice, Mr. Agoglia developed and served as the Director of BestWorks, Fazzi Associates' National Benchmarking and Best Practice Management Service, the home care industry's first best practice management tool.
Dr. Fazzi and Mr. Agoglia will share the results of a year long study that they have undertaken which has been sponsored by NAHC and underwritten by the Briggs Corporation. The study began by identifying the best home care agencies in each state by employing data from CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services. These agencies were queried, through questionnaires and in person meetings, to identify the programs that allowed them to be successful in a key
goal of limiting the re-hospitalization of patients receiving home care services under Medicare.
The obvious point is that reducing re-hospitalizations saves lives as well as money. This is easily illustrated by the fact that the average cost of a day in a hospital emergency room is $5,000, and the cost of an inpatient day is $1,000 as compared to about $100 for the daily cost of home care.
Dr. Fazzi and Mr. Agoglia will share with the audience those strategies which were found most successful in reducing re-hospitalization in top agencies. Many of these programs did not cost a great deal of money to implement but produced great results. Attendees armed with this information will have the opportunity to immediately implement recommendations, which will save lives, reduce costs, and improve quality rankings. n
Speaker Schedule
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