Published by: Kristin GO on 11/5/2010 4:04:13 PM
NAPH will be hosting its annual fall conference next week in Washington, DC. So what’s the topic of discussion? Health reform implementation of course! The aptly titled conference, “Health Reform: What’s Next”, could not be better timed. With the midterm election just days behind us, there are more questions than answers about the future of health reform. As NAPH’s Shawn Gremminger discussed in This Week in Washington, NAPH’s weekly health policy podcast, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives has already announced that it will make repeal and replacement of the health reform law a top and immediate priority when the 112th Congress convenes in January. Though it is widely thought that a repeal bill will be dead-on-arrival in the Democrat controlled Senate, it is clear that the GOP will continue to present obstacles to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Along with all the repeal talk there is also quite a bit of discussion right now around the popular provisions in the bill and whether these provisions could be places for compromise. At a recent policy briefing that I attended a panel of conservative policy experts denied that popular provisions like no exclusions for preexisting conditions and dependent coverage up to age 26 are actually popular when put in the context of the nearly one trillion dollar law.
Regardless of the debate around specific provisions being popular or not, one thing that most people agree on is that health care costs cannot continue to rise at the current rate, access must increase, and quality of care must improve. For this reason, discussions at NAPH’s fall conference on issues like quality-based payments and care coordination will be even more timely and necessary. NAPH members will also get the opportunity to hear directly from HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, (how did I not mention she was coming until just now!?) about the Administration’s strategy moving forward. Additionally our bipartisan panel of Capitol Hill staffers will shed light on how both parties will approach health care issues in the 112th Congress. Also important to mention is that as much as this conference provides safety net hospital leaders with an opportunity to learn from the Administration and other policy experts it is also an opportunity for those folks to learn from safety net hospitals. The goal of this conference is to strengthen the dialogue between lawmakers, the policy community, and safety net providers on the frontline.
For any of you not able to join NAPH in DC for the conference next week, we will be live streaming a number of the sessions on the NAPH website. Simultaneously, we will be hosting discussions on Twitter about the various session topics. Whether you are in the room or not, follow and participate in the conversations using the hashtag #NAPH. Plan ahead and start following NAPH staff on Twitter. A list of our Twitter handles is at the bottom of this post. I look forward to seeing you in person and online!
NAPH Staff Twitter Handles:
@NAPH1981, @siegelmd, @mlinson, @XiaoyiH, @kristinlaroche, @sgremminer, @JBFritz, @kaswink, @BRIGETTESCOTT , and @ldmarshall21.