Obama Spokeswoman to speak at DC Health Summit

October 29, 2008 — Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin Ph.D. was one of the key speakers today at the 2008 DC Health Summit, a meeting that is bringing together 100 of the top minds in the health care industry on Oct. 29 from 11 am to 1 pm at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington, DC. Dr. Buntin is a health economist and researcher who focuses on health insurance benefit design, health insurance markets, provider payment, and the care use and needs of the elderly. Her current projects include a study of the effects of consumer-directed health care on health care access, costs, and quality and a study of the effects of Medicare payment changes on post-acute care costs and outcomes. Although a representative from the McCain campaign was also invited to attend the DC Health Summit, Amber Johnson, director of scheduling for the campaign, declined due to an overwhelming number of events surrogates need to attend at this time.

Futurist Andy Hines to Moderate 2008 DC Health Summit

October 10, 2008 —Futurist Andy Hines will be the moderator at this month's DC Health Summit, an annual conference that brings together 100 of the top minds in the health care industry. Hines will ask and field questions of an all-star health care panel including Kaiser Permanente's Director of Population Care Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, Neurosurgeon Dr. James Melisi, the National Rehabilitation Hospital's VP Dr. Paul Rao, Maryland's former Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer, and UnitedHealthcare COO Kevin Ruth — and Virginia Senator George Barker, who prior to taking office last November worked for 30 years for the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia where he helped contain skyrocketing health care costs, promote quality of care, and ensure access to medical care for all Northern Virginians.  

What will be the Future of Health Insurance? Based on his decades of experience as a futurist, Hines has developed strategic insights of his own. As the director of custom projects at the global futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies, he and his colleagues have worked on several projects that explore the future of health care in America. Hines says some big issues ahead include: 

• Societal views on personal responsibility — Will Americans begin to lean toward accommodation or a punitive approach such as saying obesity is a disease beyond one’s control — or their fault? 

• The implications of a deeper move to holistic wellness — To what extent will innovations like support groups be covered? 

• The buck stops where? — Ultimately, who will be responsible for a person’s health; the individual, employers, the government? 

• From the institution to the individual — How fast and extensive will the shift to consumer-centric health care take place? 

• Incremental vs. transformational approaches — Will changes in our approach to health care happen in slow, incremental steps? Or will an event occur that causes changes to occur rapidly?

Dr. Steven Aldana will be keynote speaker at DC Health Summit

October 6, 2008 — Dr. Steven Aldana will be the keynote speaker at the first annual DC Health Summit, a meeting that is bringing together 100 of the top minds in the health care industry on Oct. 29 from 11 am to 1 pm at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington, DC. A former professor of lifestyle medicine in the College of Health and Human Performance at Brigham Young University, Aldana is a nationally recognized scientist and teacher on the topic of health promotion in the workplace. His keynote, “The Truth About Return on Investment and Worksite Health Promotion Programs,” will serve as an introduction to a broader discussion among Summit panelists and attendees about the future of health insurance in the United States. “Companies are always looking for ways to reduce employee-related expenses and many corporations and organizations are using health promotion programs as a reactionary effort to curtail ever-increasing, employee-related expenses of health care and lost productivity,” Aldana explains. “Dozens of published scientific research articles have evaluated the cost-benefit of worksite health promotion programs and the majority show a clear and positive ROI. Yet, many companies are hesitant to spend any money on employee health promotion efforts, raising the question as to why most health and wellness programs still struggle to get funding and support.”