4:30 – 4:45 p.m.

4:45 – 5:10 p.m.

5:10 – 6:45 p.m.

Moderator: Alan Weil
Director, Assessing the New Federalism
The Urban Institute

Comprehensive Health Reform: Implications for the States
Jack Meyer
Director, Covering America Project
President, Economic and Social Research Institute

The Covering America Project, supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is promoting the analysis and discussion of comprehensive proposals to extend health coverage to uninsured Americans. The project is intended to create a forum where new and creative ideas can be developed, dissected, debated, and reconfigured in an attempt to bring the country to the ultimate goal of universal health care coverage. Meyer will provide an overview of the project and the specific reform proposals (17 to date). He will also review recent cost analyses of the proposals. Weil, chair of SCI’s National Advisory Committee, will lead the group in a discussion of the implications of these proposals for states and federalism. States will have the opportunity to discuss their particular state situations in a highly interactive format.

6:45 – 7:30 p.m.

Reception

Continental Breakfast

8:30 - 9:45 a.m.

Session III. Medicare Reform and Prescription Drug Coverage: Implications for States

Moderator: Alice Burton
Director, State Health Policy Group
AcademyHealth

Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003
Julie James
Principal
Health Policy Alternatives, Inc.

Medicare Reform and Prescription Drug Coverage: Implications for States
Eileen Kostanecki
Federal Health & Human Services Advisor
DC Office of Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm

Medicare Reform and Prescription Drug Coverage: Implications for States
Thomas Snedden
Director, The PACE program
Pennsylvania Department of Aging

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MPDIMA) marks the first major expansion of Medicare benefits since the program was enacted in 1965. It is intended to improve prescription drug coverage for beneficiaries, especially low income individuals and those with high out-of-pocket drug expenses. This session will examine the bill’s major provisions, and potential impact on those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. State respondents who are working directly on incorporating this provision in their states, will also provide their thoughts on the act's implications

Break

11:15– 12:30 p.m.

Session V. Stemming the Erosion of Coverage in the Commercial Market: Public and Private Solutions

Moderator: Jeremy Alberga
Senior Manager
AcademyHealth

Healthy NY
Gregory Serio
Superintendent
New York State Department of Insurance

Maine's Dirigo Health Plan
Deborah Chollet
Senior Fellow, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Consultant to the Maine Office of the Governor

Don Moulds
Principal Consultant
Office of State Senator John Burton

Rising premium rates are exacerbating the erosion of the states’ commercial health insurance markets, potentially resulting in increased uncompensated care and costs to state public programs. Session V will outline ways that states are addressing this erosion through the use of reinsurance, public-private partnerships, and other strategies, such as California's 'pay or play' employer mandate. It will also include an overview of lessons learned during SCI’s Small Group Consultations on private health insurance markets, titled, “Managing Health Insurance Markets: Concentration and Performance.”

12:30– 1:30 p.m.

1:30– 1:45 p.m.

Cover the Uninsured Week presentation

Pearse Edwards
GMMB

Linda Bilheimer
Senior Program Officer
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

1:45– 3:15 p.m.

Session VI. Cost Containment Roundtable

Moderator: W. David Helms
President & CEO
AcademyHealth

Health Care Cost Growth: Stubborn Facts and Possible Solutions
Len Nichols
Vice President
Center for Studying Health System Change

Strategies for Managing the Pharmacy Benefit
Brenda Motheral
Vice President of Outcomes Research
Express Scripts

"The Leapfrog Approach": Cost Containment Through Improved Quality and Efficiency
Greg Belden
Senior Program Associate
The Leapfrog Group

Cost Containment Roundtable: Disease Management
Cheryl Roberts
Deputy Director, Program and Operations
Virginia Department of Medical Assistance

Helms will lead a group discussion about rising health care costs, cost containment strategies, and implications for access to services and quality of care. State officials will have an opportunity to engage national experts in the areas of prescription drugs, provider payment methods, disease management, and helping consumers make more informed choices.

3:15– 3:30 p.m.

Closing Remarks

Pamela Dickson
Senior Program Officer
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Break

3:45– 4:45 p.m.

Issue Intensives (optional)

These sessions offer participants a chance to discuss specific issues in small groups with expert resources. Possible topics are listed below, but the list will be narrowed based on feedback from registrants and presenter availability.

Dirigo Health Plan In-Depth
Deborah Chollet, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Local/State Coverage Partnerships
Terry Stoller, Communities in Charge

Prescription Drug Benefit Design
Brenda Motheral, Express Scripts