Recently, Promenade’s healthcare speakers weighed in on the impact of Scott Brown’s Upset Senate Victory. Sometimes provocative and partisan, these do not necessarily reflect the views of our bureau. Below, we share their thoughts on impact on healthcare industry and employers. For more on each speaker, follow the links to their profile:
Benjamin Sasse:
On New Year's Day, the odds of a Republican winning Senator Kennedy's seat seemed slightly less likely than the Red Sox deciding to reduce the Green Monster to three feet. Now, look for healthcare lobbyist after healthcare lobbyist -- to say nothing of the Senate Majority Leader -- to lose their jobs. Healthcare, the biggest -- and most broken -- sector of the U.S. economy improbably just got even more uncertain.
Dr. Benjamin Sasse - Asst Secretary of US Health & Human Services 2007-2009
Dr. David Nash:
Healthcare reform,or rather, insurance reform, is in a high altitude stall right now and may even crash and burn as it re--enters the atmosphere!! Most Americans don't appreciate all the back room dealing and the arcane Congressional rules---one never wants to see how sausage is really made. What we need is what we needed a year ago---the FOUR PILLARS of REAL REFORM.....create value in the system, cover everyone, practice wellness and prevention and finally, change the pernicious incentive system that doctors and hospitals face. If we get one of these right, it will be a major advance for the nation.
Dr. David Nash - Healthcare Safety & Quality, Modern Healthcare's Top 100 Influential
Betsy McCaughey:
Republicans should flat out say "no" to the President's invitation for
bipartisan negotiation on the existing bill. That bill reduces your
freedom. It requires all Americans to enroll in a one-size fits all health
plan, makes the IRS the enforcer on you and your employer, and empowers government to dictate how doctors treat privately insured patients -- a first in U.S. history. There can be no negotiation between freedom and coercion. The existing bill must be off the table.
President Obama says any bipartisan negotiation must achieve deficit reduction. Don't be bamboozled by calls for deficit reduction. In plain language, it means raising your taxes to keep pace with politicians' spending. The President's health plan proposes a vast expansion of government programs paid for with $500 billion in new taxes. That's not deficit reduction. It's freedom reduction.
Betsy McCaughey - Healthcare Policy & Hospital Infection Prevention
Emily Friedman:
The Obama Administration made many of the same mistakes the Clinton Administration made, and as a result lost control of the process to Congress, which, after much frenzy, produced a couple of really questionable bills. The Republicans seem content to leave nearly 50 million Americans without coverage or decent access to care, in most cases because they are either sick or can't afford insurance. The lobbies, especially the commercial insurers, poisoned the entire process. Although some elements of the reform bills will likely appear in other legislation later this year, these comprehensive efforts are probably dead. Almost all of those involved should be ashamed of themselves - and so should the rest of us, for letting it happen.
Emily Friedman - Independent Healthcare Analyst/Modern Healthcare's Top 100 Influential
Dr. Sam Bierstock:
Meaningful healthcare must be accomplished, but it cannot be achieved without, or separated from effective tort reform. The two issues are intimately related in a manner that few people have addressed. The use of EHRs allows for granularity of analysis of clinician thoughts and actions on an Orwellian level - to the extent of monitoring how long a clinician viewed a screen, displayed an alert, or if they scrolled down to read an entire document or email. Without tort reform, standards of practice expectations and admissible information resultant from clinical information systems are essential if we are to avoid providing a Pandora's Box of opportunity for an
even greater threat from frivolous legal actions and the need to practice
even more defensively (i.e. higher cost of care). Patients must be protected from genuine malpractice, but clinicians cannot function in an environment of unrestricted granularity of analysis and evaluation the most minute elements of their thoughts and actions.
Dr. Sam Bierstock - Healthcare Informatics, Managed Care Blues Band
Jeanne Scott Matthews:
What's going to happen next?
(1) Physicians: a Congressional battle over the sustainable growth rate (SGR) adjustment is brewing. No one wants to go into the elections having pissed off the docs. Something, but what, will happen?
(2) Hospitals: most Congresscritters see hospitals as still fat and
bloated; significant cuts are in the offing.
(3) PhRMA: With the infighting and resignation of Billy Tauzin, big PhRMA is in for a shake-up and a whole new policy direction. They have both sides mad at them.
Jeanne Scott - "Grandmother of HIPAA", Government Healthcare Insider
Dr. Kent Bottles:
"No matter what happens with health care reform in DC, hospital systems and medical groups that embrace Health 2.0 (user generated content) and Health 3.0 (augmented reality) technologies will thrive in the future."
http://icsihealthcareblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/kent-bottles-icsi-conference-in-may-just-might-help-fix-health-care-mess/
Dr. Kent Bottles - Transformational Leadership & Change
Gregory Stock:
The US spends more on healthcare than any other country, yet many lack access to adequate care. Our current system is unsustainable: we focus on managing process rather than improving patient outcomes; medical consumption is uncoupled from its cost; our pharma regulatory framework retards innovation; tort issues distort care decisions; we need more physicians; and costs continue to mount sharply. Current legislative proposals barely address these core problems, so whatever transpires in Washington in coming weeks, the need for deep healthcare reform will remain.
Dr. Gregory Stock - Speaks on Bioethics, Future of Genomics