Health Care, the Employer and Insurance
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Detroit Regional Chamber sponsored the fourth annual forum examining health care delivery in the U.S. The program analyzed the role of insurance in the health care system. The role and opportunity for employers in creating value will also be explored. The prospective programs likely to be enacted in Washington will also be evaluated and assessed.
The conference included presentations by Dr. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, Dr. Paul Ginsburg of the Center for Studying Health System Change, and Dr. Peter Hussey of the RAND Corporation. In addition, a series of speakers and panels that evaluated the costs and benefits of paying for outcomes as opposed to the current system that reimburses for treatments. Various approaches to getting the best value in health care was also discussed.
Refreshments will be served.
Davis will survey the impact of the significant game changing developments in health care: reform or no reform. She will describe the problems and opportunities that lie ahead for our region, employers and employees, and what we must do next.
How do we control costs? Follow the money. Evidence and opinion are beginning to prove that we can't fix health care without changing the way we buy it. Is this the solution we've been looking for?
Ginsburg will address the importance of insurance in truly transforming health care, and particularly the opportunity for reforming provider payments, combining both market-based and regulatory approaches. He will examine why there has been so little change in employers' benefits structures and what it will take to get to more global payments for bundled services.
Ultimately, health care is us. What can we call for, design and implement in our individual settings to make benefit programs more effective — for employees and families, as well as for employers? What works and what doesn't?
Just as they manage other parts of their businesses, employers have to manage their health care programs, either directly or through their insurers. What's the downside if they don't, and what's the upside if they do?
It's all about being competitive, having the best team, finishing first. At this point, what is the way forward for employers and employees? Which direction is "west," and what is our reward?
Last Updated: 04/29/2010
