State Coverage Initiatives Annual Meeting for State Officials 2009

Meeting Details

Jul 30 2009
to Jul 31 2009
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Thursday, July 30th

Update from the States

This panel will highlight states that have passed or are implementing new health reform initiatives.

- Arkansas
-
Iowa
-
Wisconsin 

Moderator:
Enrique Martinez-Vidal
Director, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Jason Helgerson
Medicaid Director
Wisconsin Department of Health Services
PowerPoint Presentation

Kevin Ryan
Executive Associate Director
ArkansasCenter for Health Improvement
PowerPoint Presentation


Ann Wiebers
Administrator
Financial, Health and Work Supports Division
Iowa Department of Human Services
PowerPoint Presentation


Spotlight on
Oregon
This panel will examine
Oregon’s recent health reform efforts.  Panelists will outline work over the past several years, starting with the 2007 legislative session, a year-long Oregon Health Fund Board process with extensive community input, through the most recent legislative session.  They will also focus on the communication, policy and political aspects of building support for the initiatives.
PowerPoint Presentation

Moderator:

Enrique Martinez-Vidal
Director, State Coverage Initiatives


Panelists:

Claudia Black
Governor’s Health Policy Advisor
Office of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski

Representative Mitch Greenlick
Oregon House of Representatives

Jeanene Smith
Administrator
Office for
Oregon Health Policy and Research

Cory Streisinger
Director
Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services
 

Additional Resources
Oregon Health Reform Additional Resources Page (listed under "Meeting Details" in shaded box in upper left corner of this page)

Health Insurance in Oregon

 Lunch – Speaker on Federal Reform           

The lunch speaker will outline the current efforts to pass federal health reform and its potential impact on states.  As a former Medicaid Director, current consultant to several state Medicaid programs, and as an adviser to the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Milligan is well-positioned analyze the federal-state relationship in the context of comprehensive reform.

Spekaer:
Charles Milligan

Executive Director
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland, BaltimoreCounty

Update on Health Reform in
Massachusetts and Vermont                                                            
How are their reform efforts progressing?  Beyond addressing access and coverage efforts, what specific strategies are they using to control costs and improve quality?

Moderator:
Isabel Friedenzohn
Deputy Director, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Susan Besio
Director
Office of
Vermont Health Access
PowerPoint Presentation

Sarah Iselin
Commissioner
Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
PowerPoint Presentation

Additional Resources
Recommendations of the Special Commission on the Health Care Payment System

Session A:  Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program:  The Case for Increased Outreach and Enrollment Efforts
This panel highlights the enhanced importance of state efforts to enroll eligible populations in public coverage programs.  This session will focus on ways to increase enrollment, and the increased incentives for doing so under Children’s Health Insurance Program Authorization Act (CHIPRA), through examples such as express lane eligibility, facilitated enrollment, intensive application assistance, automated eligibility, etc.  The session will also examine
Maryland’s lessons learned in creating a system to identify and enroll uninsured children via income tax forms.

Moderator:
Isabel Friedenzohn
Deputy Director, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Stan Dorn
Senior Research Associate
Urban Institute
PowerPoint Presentation


Charles Milligan
Executive Director

The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland, BaltimoreCounty
PowerPoint Presentation

Session B:  Connectors and Insurance Regulation   
This session will take a close look at the insurance market reforms that are being proposed at the federal level and the impact of those potential changes on state oversight. It will highlight the connector/exchange model, including the challenges and opportunities of these market-creating mechanisms. The panel will also discuss other regulatory tools a state can use to promote access and affordability in health coverage. 

Moderator:
Enrique Martinez-Vidal
Director, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Joshua Goldberg
Health Policy & Legislative Analyst
National Association of Insurance Commissioners
PowerPoint Presentation

Christopher Koller
Health Insurance Commissioner
Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner
PowerPoint Presentation

Amy Lischko
Assistant Professor
Public Health and Family Medicine
TuftsUniversitySchool of Medicine
PowerPoint Presentation

Additional Resources
Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner Rate Factor Review

Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner Affordability Standards


Faulkner, D. et al.  Considering a Health Insurance Exchange:  Lessons from the Rhode Island Experience, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Coverage Initiatives Program, June 2009.

Fronstin, P. and M. N. Ross.  Addressing Health Care Market Reform Through an Insurance Exchange:  Essential Policy Components, the Public Plan Option, and Other Issues to Consider, Employee Benefit Research Institute, Issue Brief No. 330, June 2009.

Lischko, A. et al.  The Massachusetts Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector:  Structure and Functions, The Commonwealth Fund, May 2009.

Merlis, M.  A Health Insurance Exchange:  Prototypes and Design Issues, National Health Policy Forum, June 5, 2009.

Care Coordination and Payment Reform
There is growing consensus that enhanced primary care and better care coordination will improve quality and decrease costs.  This session will look at how states are experimenting with new health care delivery models, including enhanced care coordination, medical homes and accountable care organizations, to send the right payment signals to promote a higher value health system.

Moderator:
Shelly Ten Napel
Senior Associate, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Deborah Bachrach
Medicaid Director and Deputy Commissioner
New York Office of Health Insurance Programs
PowerPoint Presentation

John Bertko
Visiting Scholar, Brookings Institution
Adjunct Staff, RAND
PowerPoint Presentation

Sandeep Wadhwa
Medicaid Director and Chief Medical Officer
Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
PowerPoint Presentation

Friday, July 31st

Session A:  Research & Evaluation of State Reforms

Staff from the State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE) program will give an overview of evaluations underway across the country.  This session will also include information about evaluations of specific health reforms.

Moderator:
Anne Bulchis
Associate, State Coverage Initiatives


Panelists:

Elizabeth Lukanen
Deputy Director
State Health Access Reform & Evaluation (SHARE) program
PowerPoint Presentation

Asher Mikow
Research Analyst
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland, BaltimoreCounty
PowerPoint Presentation

Mari Spaulding-Bynon
Insure New Mexico Bureau Chief
New Mexico Human Services Department

Session B:  Public Health in Health Reform
This session will examine how states are working to coordinate public health and health care delivery and financing reform efforts to move health reform in a more efficient and concerted manner.

Moderator:
Isabel Friedenzohn
Deputy Director, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Cara McNulty
State Health Improvement Director
Minnesota Department of Health
PowerPoint Presentation


Edward Miller
Senior Vice President, Public Policy
American Lung Association of
Maine
PowerPoint Presentation

Transparency and Accountability
States recognize that in order to pay for quality, they need to get better at measuring it.  This session will examine the tools states are using, such as all-payer data bases and patient registries, as well as multi-stakeholder consensus development processes to establish measurement standards.  Speakers will also address how states are grappling with the question of how and when to make data public and how the HIT provisions in ARRA can help states to increase transparency and accountability within the health system.

Moderator:
Shelly Ten Napel
Senior Associate, State Coverage Initiatives

Panelists:
Andy Allison
Executive Director
Kansas Health Policy Authority
PowerPoint Presentation


Christine Shannon
Bureau Chief
Office of Medicaid Business and Policy
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
PowerPoint Presentation

Suanne Singer
Senior Consultant
MaineHealthInformationCenter
PowerPoint Presentation

The Health Information Technology Aspects of the Stimulus Act: Opportunities and Challenges for States
Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 presents a strategic opportunity for states to take leadership in the area of Health Information Technology by linking new federal funding to health reform goals related to medical homes, health information exchange, and transparency.  Speakers will address how states can position themselves to leverage this unprecedented federal investment. 

Moderator:
Enrique Martinez-Vidal
Director, State Coverage Initiatives


Panelists:

Anthony Rodgers
Director
Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
PowerPoint Presentation

Ree Sailors
Program Director
National Governors Association
PowerPoint Presentation