"Consumer-Driven Healthcare"
26th Annual Meeting and Conference
Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 8:00am-2:30pm
The Westin Waltham, 70 Third Avenue, Waltham, MA
CD-ROM of Conference is available:
(slide presentations with audio from each session)
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Price: |
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Members - $80 |
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Non-members - $120 |
Available payment options are credit card (Amex, MC, Visa) or check. The CD-Rom will be mailed to you upon receipt of payment (credit card order confirmation or a check made out to the MA Health Data Consortium).
Agenda | Exhibitors | Sponsorship Opportunities | Co-Sponsors | Bios
Session Descriptions: Keynote | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3
Keynote Discussion Description:
"Consumer-Driven Healthcare: A Fundamental Shift in Responsibility?"
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Keynote Panelists Differ on Solving Cost-Quality Equation
Rapid increases in health insurance premiums have forced employers to look for new alternatives in providing health benefits to their employees. Ideally all stakeholders, including employers, employees, health plans and health care providers, can work together to promote efficiency and quality. Yet there are different perspectives on how to reach these goals among the various sectors, depending on which stakeholders are represented, according to David S. Szabo, JD, an attorney with Nutter McClennen & Fish, LLP, who will introduce the keynote panel at the Consortium's 26th Annual Meeting and Consumer-Driven Healthcare Conference April 13 at the Westin Waltham.
The panelists representing those varied perspectives will be Karin Landry, President & Practice Leader for Watson Wyatt Insurance & Financial Services; John McDonough, DrPH, Executive Director of Health Care For All; and Meredith Rosenthal, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Economics and Policy at Harvard School of Public Health. The keynote moderator will be Alan Macdonald, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable.
Macdonald's organization consists of leaders in the private arena who look at public policy issues. As it weighs the shift in responsibility for health care between employer and employee, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable is considering issues such as what kind of insurance employees want to utilize and other factors that should be addressed.
"It's a complicated area. There are common concerns as well as competing interests, with plenty of room for discussion," said Macdonald.
"I think there's been a fundamental shift," said Landry, whose firm works with insurance practices and vendors to the health care marketplace as well as with insurers. "Individuals will have more control over their financial destinies in future, not only in health care, but in retirement as well.
"I'll be the skeptic on the panel," said McDonough. "We at Health Care for All think the move to consumer-driven health care is an attempt to shift costs and responsibility in a way that may not promote the best health."
Rosenthal said she will be critical as well, but she is taking a hard look at the shift of emphasis to the consumer to determine whether there are positives to be found. In her work, she has a general interest in the economic incentives of private health insurance, primarily physician and provider payment. She is involved in a project to measure the prevalence of consumer-driven health plans and examine early effects. "We're looking at plan design and at cost-shifting, cost-sharing and engaging consumers in health care decisions."
For further information on any of our conferences and events, please contact Jerilyn Heinold, Director of Education, via e-mail. If you would like information on exhibiting opportunities for this or other events, please contact Arleen Coletti, Director of Member & Exhibiting Services via e-mail or by phone (781)768-2512.
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