Our July Health TechNet meeting focused on the current very active political season and the effect of the upcoming elections on healthcare technology .
The meeting featured the presentations of Jay Khosla, who is in charge of the Healthcare Portfolio for the McCain campaign (and previously worked for Sen. Frist and for the Budget Committee), and Deborah Mizeur, currently a political consultant to the Mizeur Group who until very recently worked for several years at the House Ways & Means Committee.
Both speakers discussed the current active climate in public policy issues affecting healthcare technology, the positions of the presidential candidates, "universal health care", the future financing and management of Medicare, electronic medical record incentives and data management requirements, the Medicare Advantage program, and important trends in fraud and abuse enforcement and privacy legislation at both the state and federal levels, among other issues.
We were also fortunate to have in this active discussion, former DHHS Secretary Richard Schweiker, Dick Coyne (formerly Deputy Director of Coverage and also the Quality shop at CMS), and several other guests hailing from NIH and the Office of the National Coordinator.