WIHI: Navigating the Elections with a Clear-Eyed View

Date: October 12, 2012

Featuring:

• Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, Former President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Chris Jennings, President, Jennings Policy Strategies (Washington, DC); Former Senior Health Care Advisor (Domestic Policy & National Economic Councils) to President Bill Clinton
  
  

We’re just weeks out from the November elections in the US and, depending on the outcome, health care reforms championed by the Obama administration will either continue unabated or possibly face some serious challenges — from a new President or a differently configured Congress. In the midst of this uncertainty, numerous individuals are keeping a close eye on the national policies and initiatives that have done the most of late to accelerate new payment schemes and the redesign of health care delivery, as well as expand insurance coverage.

IHI has two programs this fall to help you navigate this election cycle with a clarity of purpose that health care improvement requires more than ever in these tumultuous times: a WIHI with Dr. Don Berwick and Chris Jennings on October 12 and, on November 8, Out of the Blocks, an in-person, one-day conference in Washington, DC, featuring post-election analysis from Sen. Tom Daschle and Sen. Bill Frist, IHI President and CEO Maureen Bisognano, Virginia Mason CEO Gary Kaplan, and moderated by Don Berwick and NBC’s Nancy Snyderman, MD.

Because health care reform has become such a political flash point, it’s sometimes hard to find the “through line” for the improvement community in particular and the country as a whole. But Don Berwick says this is precisely what needs to happen. In this WIHI, he explains what “continuity of purpose” might entail in order to stay focused on a robust agenda that includes much greater attention to improving care across the continuum, reducing costs, and helping people and communities lead healthier lives. You can also count on Chris Jennings to summon his 25 years of experience as a health policy strategist to provide the freshest and most sanguine ways to think about reinventing health care in the US, even when political winds can, and often do, change directions.

Madge Kaplan hosts this special pre-election WIHI... Whether you’re steeped in forming an accountable care organization or patient-centered medical home, innovating to improve the patient experience, hard at work on reducing avoidable readmissions, or engaged in any combination of these efforts and more.