Last modified: Monday, April 30, 2012
Cook Medical to host Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Series event on health care law provision
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2012
Editors: A complete program schedule, links to the participants' biographies and directions are available online at the Center for the Business of Life Sciences website. Media interested in attending need to contact George Vlahakis at 812-855-0846 or vlahakis@iu.edu.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- One of the most talked-about provisions of the new health care law -- accountable care organizations, or ACOs -- will be the focus of the final event in the Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Series for 2011-12 on May 11 in Bloomington.
Cook Medical's headquarters in Bloomington will be the site for the next event in the Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Series.
ACOs are seen as a model that offers doctors and other medical providers with financial incentives for providing a good quality of patient care while also keeping down costs. Thus far, they are being formed primarily for Medicare beneficiaries, but if the health care law is upheld this summer, ACOs will be used for patients with private insurance as well.
The daylong conference will take place Friday, May 11, at Cook Medical World Headquarters in Bloomington.
Among the presenters will be Joseph Mott, vice president of healthcare transformation at Intermountain Healthcare, a leader in ACOs that operates 22 hospitals and a full range of medical services, including clinics and urgent care centers, physician offices and other services worldwide.
As a concept, ACOs are not new, but in recent years the concept of a group of health care providers working together to oversee care for an assigned population has emerged as one of the potential tools to "bend the health care cost curve," said George Telthorst, director of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences in IU's Kelley School of Business.
"A broad agreement generally exists on the principles of the focus on primary care," he said. "Payments linked to performance and quality improvements, and the use of rigorous and more sophisticated measures to track improvement, as well as many complex details need to be filled in so legislation can be implemented.
"This conference is going to be about the peeling of the onion of what we know about the role of ACOs under the new law."
The conference will update attendees on the latest in the associated regulations being issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, their likely impact and the current status of ACOs in Indiana.
Telthorst said that under the new federal law, health care providers will have the option of setting up ACOs, also commonly known as "health care homes."
"Medical products companies are going to be affected as they perhaps see the demand for their products change. It may go up, but they may also see some pricing pressures," Telthorst said regarding their impact on a major industry in the state.
Joseph Mott
Other presenters at the conference will include Dr. Samuel R. Nussbaum, executive vice president of clinical health policy and the chief medical officer of WellPoint; and executives of health care providers and pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.
The conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Cook headquarters, 750 Daniels Way, in Bloomington. The cost is $90. Registration and additional information are available online at the Center for the Business of Life Sciences website or by contacting Kelli Conder at the Kelley School, 812-856-0915 or kconder@indiana.edu.
The conference series is presented by the IU Kelley School of Business and its Center for the Business of Life Sciences, BioCrossroads and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Primary sponsors of the May 11 conference also include Cook Medical, Hill-Rom, Ice Miller LLP, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Purdue University and WellPoint.
Following registration and networking from 8 to 9 a.m., Dan Peterson, vice president of industry and government affairs at Cook Medical, will offer introductory comments.
Mott will open the conference on the topic, "Bending the Cost Curve: Are You Part of the Problem, or Part of the Solution?" He has been with Intermountain Healthcare since 1985, including 20 years at its Primary Children's Medical Center from 1992 to 2012. He served as chief financial officer of Primary Children's Medical Center for 10 years and was its CEO from 2007 to 2012.
In 2011, Mott was asked to lead Intermountain's implementation of a Shared Accountability Organization. In this role, he leads teams with participants from across the organization that are working to create evidence-based care standards, align financial incentives and engage patients. In February, he was appointed Intermountain Healthcare's vice president for healthcare transformation.
He will be followed by the first panel discussion, which will look at the impact of ACOs on health care providers. The panel, moderated by Kevin Woodhouse, a partner at Ice Miller, will consist of Jay Brehm, executive vice president and regional CFO of Franciscan St. Francis Health; Dr. Ben Park, president and CEO of American Health Network; John Kansky, vice president for strategy and planning at Indiana Health Information Exchange; and Kurt Ellis, vice president for outpatient services and business development at Columbus Regional Hospital.
After lunch, Nussbaum will present a keynote address, "Payment Innovation: Strategies to Improve Healthcare Quality and Affordability." Dr. David Lee, vice president for provider engagement and contracting at WellPoint, will introduce him.
A second panel discussion will look at how ACOs may affect Indiana's life sciences industry. Moderated by David Johnson, president of BioCrossroads, the panel will consist of Dr. Jim Gardner, director of reimbursement and medical science officer of Cook Medical; Dr. Kathleen Shoemaker, managed healthcare services at Eli Lilly & Co.; Joyce Irwin, national director of state government affairs at Roche Diagnostics Corp.; and Tom Jeffers, vice president for government affairs at Hill-Rom.
Telthorst will offer concluding remarks at 3 p.m. A tour of the Cook Medical production facility, the world's largest privately held medical device company, will be available immediately following the conference.
Other financial sponsors are Anson Group; Barnes & Thornburg LLP; Beckman Coulter; Biomet; Commissioning Agents; Eli Lilly & Co.; Ice Miller LLP; the IU School of Medicine; Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute; Krieg DeVault LLP; OrthoWorx; Symmetry Medical; Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP; WellPoint; and Zimmer.
Brochure sponsors are Cabello Associates; and Miles Printing on Plastics. Marketing sponsors are BioConvergence; Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership; Covance; Covidien Imaging Solutions; Harlan Laboratories; Healthcare Businesswomen's Association, Indiana Chapter; IU College of Arts and Sciences; IU Kelley Evening MBA Program; IU Kelley School of Business Alumni Association; IU Office of the Vice President for Engagement; IU Research & Technology Corp.; Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington; Novus Biologicals; Purdue University Regulatory and Quality Compliance Graduate Program; and VMS: A BioMarketing Company.
