| 2005 Annual MCRA Conference | ||||||||||
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“One of the best conferences” These are just a few of the comments that were heard.
San Francisco was the site of last year’s Annual MCRA Conference held at the trendy Clift Hotel. Many thanks to Allianz, InterLink, and Presidio for sponsoring Monday’s breakfast, lunch, and afternoon break. We opened the conference with our traditional Sunday night welcome reception held in the fabulous Spanish Suite at the top of the Clift Hotel. Dan Melanson, MCRA Board President, officially kicked off the Conference Monday morning with a warm welcome to everyone. Brad Nelson, Principal of the ROC Group, our first speaker of the day, got us off to a great start with his presentation, “The Art & Neuroscience of Communication.” Brad has 25 years of experience in designing highly effective and highly practical communication strategies in a variety of settings. While this topic may not be industry related, Brad opened with a great deal of energy and gave us insight as to how our brains function. Great information for us all. The “Future of Healthcare Medicare or Market” was presented by our second speaker of the day, Alain Enthoven, Profession Emeritus at Stanford University. Alain was extremely knowledgeable about the healthcare industry and has served as a consultant to presidential administrations and Healthcare entities alike. He was Assistant Secretary of Defense under President John F, Kennedy. Given the number of discussions and political interest that the healthcare system has generated over the past 10 years, Alain was not very optimistic about the prospect of fixing the system, but recognize that possible solutions could include:
His presentation was very well received and evoked a variety of questions from the attendees. Our third speaker of the day, Kelly Munger, Vice President from Allianz Life who spoke on “Trends in the Healthcare Industry.” Kelly’s presentation was very energetic with great statistics and visuals. She has a very positive approach to Healthcare issues and solutions. Kelly concentrated on six main discussion points:
Kelly opened up her presentation at the end to the attendees to get their thoughts and perspective on what these issues could mean to our industry. John Wray, SVP of Catholic Healthcare West and Jib Martens, COO of Reinsurance Advisory Services finished up the day discussing “Provider Contracting Issues.” It was very informative to hear some of the contracting issues that providers are having. Both of these speakers felt that there is a need to collaborate to make tough choices regarding increased costs, burdens to employers, Medicare insolvency, the elderly, and chronic illnesses. A re-occurring theme throughout the conference was reiterated, that of rising costs due to technology, drugs, and lifestyle. John and Jib, both felt that consumer education and prevention need to be part of controlling costs. This was a message heard from several speakers. Monday evening closed with a sensational wine tasting reception. The sommelier couldn’t have been more helpful. She was extremely knowledgeable and tirelessly answered questions and gave suggestions to all our wine connoisseurs. The food that accompanied the wine tasting was exceptional. Everyone was delighted with this event. Tuesday morning, we opened the day with John Van Dyke from Interlink speaking on “Outcomes Management.” Kudos to John who substituted at the last minute for Tim, Koch, who had a sudden death in the family. John presented new ideas for other types of networks now that transplant networks are firmly entrenched. Some of these networks would concentrate on Cancer Care, Neonatal, Congenital Heart Disease, Burn Care, Bariatric Surgery, and Dialysis. Elaine Cribbs Rizza, President of The Rizza Group, rounded out the Tuesday morning session. While her topic “Regulatory Issues Regarding Fee and Compensation” addressed more than the concerns regarding ERISA plans, as her message was all encompassing. A brief reference was made to Eliot Spitzer and the changes that concern our industry, especially in the area of compensation and disclosure. Elaine’s message, “the bottom line is to disclose.” The last session of the day was a Panel Discussion facilitated by Dan Carlson and included the members of the MCRA Board. Topics for discussion included:
This session generated a moderate amount of input from the attendees. The Conference wrapped up around noon on Tuesday, May 3, 2005, with evaluations being completed by the attendees and then off for one more meal together before the official end of the 2005 Conference. Every year our speakers do a fantastic job, and the MCRA Board wants to convey a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you. You are the major reason that our Conference is a success. The attendees gave the conference excellent grades and commented that topics were timely and very informative. According to many of the comments that we received at the conclusion of the conference it was characterized as one of the best conferences that we have had in recent years. If you didn’t make it to this year’s conference you missed out on some exceptional sessions. Don't risk that happening twice!
Please welcome your .....2006 MCRA Board of Directors
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