Summit

The Business of Healthcare

Event Overview

Date: November 21, 2008
Location: CNM Workforce Training Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico

What creative ideas do you have to increase the effectiveness of healthcare and lead our country toward creating universal coverage? How would you craft a healthcare system if the words “can’t” and “regulation” were not in your vocabulary? These questions and others were considered at the summit: The Business of Healthcare. The summit offered a lively and creative setting where participants:

  • conceived of strategies healthcare providers and administrators can implement without legislation, and
  • identified areas where we can eliminate, remodel, and reform regulation to fit the solution (rather than the other way around).

Over the last year there has been a great effort in the state of New Mexico to address the problems of healthcare and achieve universal coverage. It is clear, from the results of the legislative session, that consensus regarding what to do has not yet been reached. Solutions to healthcare are many faceted. Some are frustrated by the body of laws, rules, and regulations that they feel only hinder affordable and practical results. Reform is possible, they believe, only by challenging the regulatory framework guiding every piece of the health care continuum. In an effort to take a different view, this summit focused on identifying unexplored ground by exploring the business of healthcare.

Who Attended the Summit?

  • Hospital administrators
  • Physicians and nurses
  • Auxiliary clinical staff
  • Pharmaceutical representatives and pharmacists
  • Insurance providers and agents

What Happened at the Summit?

New Mexico First events are not typical conferences with hour after hour of presentations. Rather, the summit was a deliberative event filled with a lively flow of discussion. Participants spent the bulk of the day in small groups with others who share their industry focus and expertise. Participants also had the opportunity to more clearly define areas of conflict and focus on ways to form consensus. Each small group had a trained discussion leader and recorder to collect ideas and facilitate the process.

What Happens After the Summit?

The issues addressed at the summit will not sit on a shelf. The final report is available to city, county, state, and industry leaders. Participants envisioned processes to discuss and inform other stakeholders in the healthcare universe of these findings as well as how these ideas might find fertile ground in truly reforming the system. Finally, the findings will provide a platform to create, amend, or influence legislation to accomplish the good ideas.