AcademyHealth hosted a National Health Policy Conference, featuring speeches from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and a range of health care officials.
Secretary Sebelius discussed the administration's health care policy priorities as key provisions of the Affordable Care Act come online over the next year.
Following her remarks, a discussion on health information technology featured Farzad Mostashari of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, The Commonwealth Fund's David Blumenthal, Paul Tang of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Christine Bechtel of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
In the afternoon, Rep. Burgess (R-TX) described Congressional priorities for the coming year.
Then, a panel of state officials discussed challenges and opportunities for state health care policy. That panel consisted of Patty Fontneau, Executive Director of the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange; Christopher Koller, Rhode Island Health Insurance Commissioner; Alan Weil, National Academy for State Health Policy; and Julie Weinberg, Division Director for Medicaid for the New Mexico Human Services Department.