Center for Studying Health System Change

Roundtable Participants

Moderator

The sixth annual "Wall Street Comes to Washington" roundtable, hosted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), promises to provide diverse perspectives on recent health care trends and related policy implications. HSC will bring together leading bond and equity analysts with a thorough understanding of market conditions affecting managed care plans, hospitals, physician organizations and other health care companies. In addition, HSC has invited top-level policy experts to discuss what the latest market trends mean for national health policy.

Panelists will talk about new legislative and regulatory actions and debate broad health care trends, including the outlook for insurance premiums and how employers and plans are responding to rising medical costs.

By bridging the worlds of Wall Street and Washington, HSC hopes to provide a richer understanding of how health care markets work and insights into the interactions between public and private markets. Joy Grossman, HSC associate director, will draw on findings from HSC’s recently completed third round of site visits to 12 nationally representative communities to challenge or support Wall Street analysts’ views of market trends. The roundtable will allow ample time for questions and answers.

Topics to Be Covered Include:

Managed Care. What implications does the retreat from managed care have for medical costs and premium trends? How much will plan premiums rise in 2002, and how will employers and public purchasers respond? What kinds of new products are health plans developing to respond to rising costs and purchasers’ increasing intolerance of premium increases? Will defined-contribution approaches to health benefits pick up steam as the economy slows?

Hospitals and Physicians. As the economic clout of hospitals and specialists grows, what are the implications? Is there evidence of a return to a medical arms race mentality? How prevalent are capacity constraints in hospitals, and how are hospitals responding? How might the nursing shortage affect hospitals? Are quality efforts such as the Leapfrog Group’s having an effect on hospitals? What is the impact of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s administrative simplification and privacy standards?

Pharmaceuticals. What is the response to tiering of pharmaceutical copayments? Are there other innovations in the wings to control pharmaceutical costs? Will these be applied to contain the costs of other services as well? Will FDA regulations governing direct-to-consumer advertising be modified? What are the short- and long-term prospects for generics to gain more of a foothold in the U.S. market? Will plan efforts to shift some prescription drugs to over-the-counter status be successful? How will the industry react to different policy proposals to expand Medicare outpatient prescription drug coverage?

Other Policy Topics. How much damage has turmoil in Medicare+Choice had on policy maker and beneficiary support? What would it take to turn around and expand the current program? Under a Medicare reform scenario relying on competition, who would the industry winners and losers be? How likely would the uninsured be to take advantage of stand-alone tax credits? How might plans react to efforts to make tax credits more effective—such as purchasing pools or community rating—that address risk selection issues? How might tax credits affect the individual and small group insurance markets?

	Sixth Annual Wall Street Comes to Washington Market Watchers and Policy Anaylsts Evaluate the Health Care System Conference Transcript

	Access to Care
	Private Coverage
	Racial/Ethnic Disparities
	Uninsured and Low Income