Round-up of media coverage of Florida Health Care Affordability Summit

Key health care industry leaders, innovators and lawmakers gathered Thursday and Friday in Orlando, to participate in the first set of panel discussions at the 2013 Florida Health Care Affordability Summit. The Summit, a sold out event hosted by the Foundation of Associated Industries of Florida (FAIF), has brought together some of the most instrumental decision makers and thought leaders to discuss the areas of critical-need for Florida’s health care landscape.

Here is a round-up of the media coverage of FHCAS:

Here are a couple of overview stories…

Orlando Business Journal: Health Care Affordability Day 1 – Setting the stage for change

WFSU: Lawmakers, Stakeholders Converge on Orlando for Health Care Summit 

This story from the Sunshine State News sets the tone — Tom Feeney: Expected to Be ‘Offended’ at Health Care Summit…

“We have to get health care right, there is no alternative,” Feeney said, whose business advocacy organization intends to present proposals on revamping health care in Florida for the 2013 legislative session, and for future sessions.

He also advised attendees that all opinions are welcome at the two-day event, noting, “If you sit through and pay attention you’re going to be offended by something somebody says at some point and that is exactly what we hope to achieve.”

The summit has a number of panels ranging from private sector and public sector health care solutions to modernizing Florida’s health care delivery system.

Good stories about the panelists…

Brian Klepper calls for non-health care businesses to unite via Abraham Aboraya of the Orlando Business Journal 

The health care industry spent $1.2 billion lobbying lawmakers, and there’s only one other industry with enough weight to counter that — everyone else.

So said Brian Klepper, the chief development officer at WeCare TLC, during the “Unraveling the Mysteries of Health Care Financing” panel Jan. 10 at the Foundation of Associated Industries of Florida’s Health Care Affordability Summit. Klepper was the only panelist who didn’t work for an insurance company.

“The sum and substance to everything I’ve done is that you need to come together, all the non health care business leaders in Florida, and you need to be a counterweight to the tremendous influence by the health care industry,” Klepper said.

While Klepper used part of his opening statements as a call to action, other panelists pointed to the tectonic shifts taking shape in the industry as shedding light on financing health care.

Health care expert sees technology as cost control tool by James Call of the Florida Current

Keynote speaker Michael Millenson, president ofHealth Quality Advisors and a former CEO of the Clinton Foundation, said that now is a revolutionary period for health care. Millenson defined a revolution as a transfer of power, saying that in order to control the cost of health care, the United States needs to change into a system that holds providers, health plans and patients accountable.

“We are changing the balance of autonomy and accountability. And that is tough. That is revolutionary. That is difficult because nobody likes losing power. Nobody likes losing autonomy,” Millenson said.

“We’re taking power away from the providers to do anything they want and saying, ‘no, you are going to be held accountable.’ We’re taking power away from health plans, (they say) ‘don’t worry I know what I’m doing,’ (but employers) are holding them accountable. Frankly, although we don’t say this out loud, we are taking power away, in some ways, from the individual patient. No, your insurance card does not entitle you to get anything you want,” Millenson said.