The Kansas City Local Program Council held a Health Reform Summit on Setember 17th hosted in the Board Room at Truman Medical Center.  Speakers included John Bluford, Pres/CEO Truman Medical Center, Mike Dunaway, SVP Field Operations MHA, Sherry Fontaine, PhD, Executive Dir. Healthcare Leadership Program at Park University , Ned Holland SVP Human Resources & Communications for EMRARQ and Bill Dwyer noted healthcare consultant.  The room was packed and the learnings were cogent;
-Complexity of healthcare system will continue to make reform difficult and likely to be incremental.
-Both Presidential Candidates have hopeful ways to go after the two major problems; a) Rising Costs and b) 45.7 M Uninsured.
-Neither Candidate has extensive backgrounds in healthcare and will rely on advisers to help them navigate through this complexity.
-Prevention, wellness, personal responsibility and Disease Mangement likely to play bigger role going forward.
-Means Testing for entitlement programs and adjustments to tax treatment for employer-sponsored insurance are one of the biggest differences.
-American voters now see health reform as a top issue, even if not Number One.
-Collaboration among local providers and use of IT will enable progress in the future.

Thirty-seven local health care executives attended and the prorgram and rated it highly.  Contact dwybill@gmail.com for more information on the program or kate.conrad@chca.com for KCLPC information.