Plenary Sessions - Integrated Care Conference

Health Policy After the Election and COVID-19: A Panel

Instead of debating ACA+ vs. Repeal and Replace 3.0, COVID-19 and our nation’s varied responses to it have altered many landscapes, some permanently. The weaknesses of employment-based insurance, the limits of rugged individualism, the dangers of anti-science agitation and the reverberating consequences of multi-dimensional socio-economic inequities are things that cannot be unseen. The political risk of government overreach is also dangerously heightened. How to fashion a broader American policy consensus out of these real time lessons coming at us relentlessly, for a polarized electorate, that is the question before us all.

October 2020 will represent a historic juncture in healthcare policy given the COVID-19 pandemic and the upcoming presidential election. What is in store for healthcare in the United States given various outcomes? Join our panelists, representing liberal and conservative values and our moderator as they explore the future of healthcare policy in America.

Len M. Nichols

Moderator

Len M. Nichols

Len M. Nichols in a non-resident Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and an Emeritus Professor of Health Policy at George Mason University. For the past 10 years he was the Director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason. He has been intimately involved in health reform debates, policy development, and communication with the media and policy makers for 20+ years, after he was Senior Advisor for Health Policy at the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton Administration. He has consistently sought to add moral arguments to the technical health policy debate.

Dan Gorenstein

Panelist

Dan Gorenstein

Dan Gorenstein is Executive Producer and co-host of the Tradeoffs podcast, Mediamaker-in-Residence at the Annenberg School for Communication, and LDI Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Tradeoffs combines compelling stories and rigorous research to explore solutions to some of health care’s toughest challenges. Before launching the podcast, Mr. Gorenstein was the senior reporter for Marketplace’s Health Desk, covering the business of health care. Previously, he was a reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio. He holds a BA from Earlham College.

Rodney Whitlock

Panelist

Rodney Whitlock

Rodney is an accomplished health care executive with more than two decades on the Hill where he specialized in rural health, the health care safety net and disability policy. With nearly 25 years of experience, Rodney possesses and offers clients the kind of knowledge that is uniquely available to those who have drafted and advanced legislation. He strategically guides clients through dense Medicare and Medicaid issues that have significant business impact.

Nudge Units: Creating Healthcare Architecture To Improve Quality 

How do we improve healthcare delivery without restricting clinician choices? Our speaker, Mitesh Patel, MD thinks behavioral “nudges” are the key. His team at Penn Medicine pioneered the concept of “nudge units” where “the goals are to improve health care value and outcomes, advance knowledge about how to best implement nudges for impact, evaluate our efforts, and disseminate our findings. Ideas are generated by health system leadership, front-line clinicians and staff, and members of the unit itself.” 

Mitesh Patel

Mitesh S. Patel, MD, MBA is Director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, the world’s first behavioral design team embedded within a health system. He is the Ralph Muller PresidentialAssistant Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management at the Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is aStaffPhysician at the Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.

Our American Dilemma: Placing an Equity Lens on the Struggle for Diversity and Inclusion

With the backdrop of the protests over police brutality against minorities in 2020, physician Will Ross will talk about the ongoing struggle to achieve inclusivity and diversity in healthcare and its relationship to the goal of health equity for all. 