Oregon’s Fiscal Health and the Health of Oregonians: A Premier Issue Event

Spiraling costs for health care are a major contributor to the budget crisis in Oregon and the nation. The Oregon Health Policy Board has endorsed the ‘Triple Aim’ as a guiding principle for reform:

• Improve lifelong health of all Oregonians
• Increase the quality, reliability, and availability of care for all Oregonians
• Lower or contain the cost of care so that it is affordable for everyone

How can this be possible? There are some answers. This forum will explore a few of them:
• Only provide care that actually improves health. Focus on proven prevention and therapies, and reliably provide them. Stop providing care that doesn’t work or is harmful.
• Achieve operational efficiency. Just as there is clinical ‘best practice’, so there are models of care that provide superior results. A focus on effective primary care and standardized payment and reimbursement policies are just two examples.
• Understand risks and benefits – of therapies, of delivery and reimbursement models.

Panelists include:
• David Labby, MD, PhD; Medical Director, Care Oregon
• Jeanene Smith, MD, MPH; Administrator, Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research
• Heidi Nelson, MD, MPH; Research Professor in the Departments of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology and Medicine, OHSU
• Moderator Jim Scott, MD, Dean, Advanced Training Program in Healthcare Improvement at PeaceHealth

Photo credit: Herval, http://www.flickr.com/photos/herval/