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Public event at Akron's main library to introduce guiding principles for changing national system
By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Friday, Oct 03, 2008
Summit County's largest employer wants to take a bigger role in pushing for health-care reform on the national level.
Summa Health System plans to introduce its vision of guiding principles for changing the nation's health-care system — called ''Nine for '09'' — next week during a public forum it is hosting.
The event also will feature speeches by Dr. Robert Berenson, a Medicare expert and senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.; and Chris Jennings, a national health policy expert who served as senior health-care adviser to President Clinton.
The Summa Health Policy Summit will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at the Akron-Summit County Public Library's auditorium, 60 S. High St., Akron.
The event is free to the public, but reservations are needed by calling 1-800-237-8662.
During the forum, Summa will introduce its plans for ''attainable health policy reform solutions that will yield higher quality outcomes, reduced health-care costs and increased insurance coverage for underserved populations,'' the health system said in a statement.
Businesses, health-care providers, insurers and consumers alike increasingly are pushing to change the way our nation provides and pays for medical care, said Jennings, president of the Jennings Policy Strategies Inc. consulting firm in Washington, D.C.
A recent study by the nonprofits Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust found that the average premium for family coverage through an employer- sponsored health plan rose from $5,791 in 1999 to $12,680 this year.
''It's no longer just a moral issue,'' Jennings said. ''It's an economic one.''
Jennings is working with a bipartisan effort led by four former U.S. Senate leaders to recommend ways to fix the nation's health-care system.
A key point he will discuss during Monday's event will be the need to pay doctors and hospitals for providing quality care, ''not quantity,'' he said.
Likewise, Berenson plans to share information about recent proposals by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to update Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people ages 65 or older and some younger disabled Americans.
MedPAC, an independent agency that advises the U.S. Congress on Medicare, is recommending that hospitals get financial incentives for working with doctors to keep patients well, Berenson said.
The theme, he said, is ''to try to change the situation where hospitals are rewarded for filling beds and financially penalized for keeping people out of the hospital.''
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Summit County's largest employer wants to take a bigger role in pushing for health-care reform on the national level.
Get the full article here.
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Posted 08:20 PM, 10/03/2008
like I said last night they need to start with themselves and stop hounding peope who are trying to pay their bill at city hospital
