The San Francisco Business Times hosted the Bay Area Health Reform Impact Summit last week at the Hilton in Union Square. Four panelists from different health sectors discussed Obamacare and the effects it has had in their verticals.
The panel members were:
- Richard Fish, CEO, Brown & Toland Physicians
- Ken Wood, Senior Vice President for Consumer & Senior Markets, Blue Shield of California
- John Connell, President of Employee Benefits of California, EPIC
- Chris Willrich, Regional Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Sutter Health West Bay Region
![Health reform summit][/assets/posts_media/SFBT_HealthReform_2014-300x159.jpg]
It was clear the healthcare reform had affected the core of their organizations. For example, John Connell explained the increase in workload for EPIC, due to fundamental administrative changes, such as the new definition of a ‘full-time employee’. There was also a good discussion on the effects of healthcare reform at the macro level. The consensus was that although change has been incremental from the exterior, for those within the industry, healthcare reform has been radical.
I took away some great wisdom from Richard Fish, including his emphasis on incentives. He urged employers to look for price, quality and outcome transparency when selecting health insurance for their business. He also said,
“Healthcare is cheap; eat well, exercise, floss your teeth. Intervention is expensive”.
I couldn’t agree more.
