Health Economics Roundtable Events
Upcoming Teleconference
"Health Care Information Technology and Financing’s Next Frontier:
The Potential of Medical Banking"
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
1:00-2:00 PM Eastern
Moderator: Devon Herrick, Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis and Health Economics Roundtable Chair.
Speaker: Stephen Parente, Associate Professor, Department of Finance, and Director, Medical Industry Leadership Institute, University of Minnesota.
Slideshow (PDF)
This session will explore the potential for more extensive use of information technology, including: Can medical banking card technologies be a viable personal health records platform? In addition, the teleconference will discuss the hurdles—financial, technical, and institutional—that need to be surmounted to achieve these objectives.
Stephen T. Parente is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance in the Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota where he specializes in health economics, health insurance, medical technology evaluation and health information technology. He has extensive experience directing empirical analyses utilizing primary and secondary data bases and is acknowledged as a national expert on using administrative databases, particularly Medicare and health insurer data, for health policy research. He has served has a consultant to several of the largest health care organizations including: UnitedHealth Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Johnson and Johnson, Medtronic, Pfizer, Merck, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and various government agencies. He is currently the principal investigator for several projects evaluating the impact of consumer-directed health plans.
Dr. Parente teaches graduate level courses in health economics, information technology and medical technology evaluation. He holds an appointment as adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University. He holds a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, and both a Masters of Science in public policy analysis and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Rochester.
Previous Teleconferences
“Innovations in Convenient Care: Retail Clinics and Telemedicine”
Thursday, August 30, 2007
12:30 PM EDT
Typical primary care visits are inconvenient and often costly. A visit to one’s doctor, even for routine care, requires that patients make an appointment — often well in advance. After patients travel to their physician’s office, they must queue in a waiting room. In many cases, one’s primary care physician is not available. To fill a niche in primary care, entrepreneurs are creating innovative practices. Increasingly, patients can interact with physicians in ways more convenient and less expensive than a tradition office visit.
This teleconference explores two recent trends in routine primary care: convenient, retail-based, walk-in clinics and telemedicine, where patients consult with a physician by telephone.
This teleconference is available as a NABE Podcast.
Speakers:
Dan Patterson, an investor in
SmartCare Family Medical Centers
and TelaDoc
Michael Gorton, a founder of TelaDoc
Devon Herrick, Chair, Health Economics Roundtable, moderator
SmartCare Family Medical Centers is a new type of walk-in clinic typically located in big box retail stores or pharmacies. They have a limited scope of practice and are staffed by nurse practitioners. Their advantage is that they are convenient and clearly post prices, which are about half that of traditional clinics. No appointment is necessary and there is little waiting. These clinics are not intended to replace one’s primary care physicians; rather, they provide convenient care for minor ailments, such as sore throats, earaches, and school physicals.
TelaDoc is a physician call service. It also has a limited scope of practice but is staffed by licensed physicians. It too is not intended to replace members’ primary care physicians; rather, it is a safety net members can rely upon in situations when they cannot get into see their regular doctor. For instance, a member who comes down with the flu after hours might get quick access to Tamiflu with one phone call. Or a member, traveling on business, who runs out of medicine for a chronic condition might call and get enough pills to last until he/she is back home.
Speaker Bios
Dan Patterson is president of Transition Capital Partners, a private equity firm that has invested in SmartCare Family Medical Centers and TelaDoc, as well as other health care ventures. He started, built, and sold several companies during his career. In 1983, after spending three years in Business Development for Pearle Vision Centers, with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, he launched a corporate wellness company. In 1985, he started a weight loss business, which marketed the Optifast program through joint ventures with hospitals. The business achieved a place on the Inc. Magazine list of fastest growing companies in the United States in 1988. In 1989 both the weight loss and the wellness businesses were sold.
In 1991, Patterson and a partner acquired Hunt Products Company, a division of Hunt Oil Company, a private health and beauty care products manufacturer. In 1992, he raised capital from Galen Partners, a healthcare investment fund, to ramp up company operations. In 1993, after selling HPC's product lines to two competitors, he co-founded Transition Capital Partners and became president in 1996. He earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Kenyon College and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. He spent three years between college and graduate school as a high-level assistant to the Governor of Illinois. He serves on the board of directors for six of the Transition Capital Partners portfolio companies.
Michael Gorton is chairman and CEO of TelaDoc. A successful entrepreneur, he was the founder and CEO of Internet Global, the first company in the world to deliver commercial DSL (1996). Internet Global was the beta and world rollout partner for Ericsson's patented VOIP (Phone Doubler) product (1998). iGlobal constructed a national VOIP network for long distance service. He negotiated the sale of Internet Global in 1999 for $122M.
In 2000, Gorton founded the Texas Acceleration Group, an organization of successful entrepreneurs whose goal was to accelerate the growth of early stage companies through mentoring and fund raising.
Gorton served as interim CEO for an educational technology company, Whoola; as a mentor for Texas incubator, STARTech; as well as being on the board of several technology companies. Gorton spent the first 12 years of his career as a manager/engineer for Texas Utilities. He has degrees in Physics, Engineering and Law and serves as adjunct Professor of Astronomy at Richland College.
“Global Health Care: Medical Travel and Medical Outsourcing”
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Speakers:
--Milica Bookman, Professor of Economics, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, and author of the forthcoming book Medical Tourism in Developing Countries.
--Rudy Rupak, President and Founder, PlanetHospital, a company that arranges medical travel.
--Devon Herrick, Chair, Health Economics Roundtable, will moderate.
This teleconference is available as a free podcast. Download it from the NABE Podcast page or via iTunes subscription.
Global competition is an emerging trend in the health care industry, as a growing number of high-quality health care facilities in developing countries have begun catering to so-called "medical tourists" or "medical travelers" from other countries. Uninsured patients and those from countries where care is rationed by waiting are also attracted to high-quality health care that is up to 80 percent less expensive than the cost of care in the United States.
Insurers are already beginning to add low-cost, international facilities to their networks as modern technology and cheaper transportation lowers the cost of health care. Medical travel is not a new concept. For decades, people from developed countries (usually the wealthy) escaped to international hotspots to be nipped and tucked in anonymity at bargain prices. Today, in addition to cosmetic surgery, people are looking abroad for a myriad of medical services, ranging from basic MRI scans to complex open-heart surgery.
In 2004, medical tourism grossed more than $40 billion worldwide. A report by McKinsey & Company predicts this total could rise to $100 billion by 2012. Indeed, global competition from medical tourism could have an impact on American health care similar to the impact Japanese automakers have had on the U.S. auto industry, predicts Uwe Reinhardt, a health economist Princeton University.
The speakers for Wednesday's teleconference are Prof. Milica Bookman, author of a new book, "Medical Tourism in Developing Countries," and Rudy Rupak, founder and CEO of PlanetHosptial, a firm dedicated to connecting patients with health care facilities abroad.
Professor Milica Bookman, Saint Joseph's University
Milica Bookman is an economics professor at St. Joseph's University in
Philadelphia. She was educated at Brown University (BA with Honors in
International Relations), the London School of Economics (MSc in
Economics) and Temple University (PhD in Economics). Her area of concentration is economic development and she has done field work in many countries across Africa, Asia and South America.
Professor Bookman is the author of numerous scholarly articles and nine academic books, some of which were at the cutting edge of her field when they were published (for example, "The Economics of Secession," "The Demographic Struggle for Power"). She has received the Tenglemann Award for excellence in research and one of her books was chosen as the Choice Outstanding Academic Book for 1993. Over the years, she has been an invited speaker at the University of Pennsylvania, The Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. War College, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Foreign Policy Research Institute and many other institutes.
Her tenth book, just out last week, is entitled, "Medical Tourism in Developing Countries," and is the first scholarly book on the subject. It is co-authored with her daughter, attorney Karla Bookman, who contributed the legal perspective. Professor Bookman's research on medical tourism was cited in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Miami Herald, People Magazine, Providence Journal, and others. She has appeared on PBS Nightly Business Report and Comcast CN8, and her book reading will soon appear on C-Span.
Prof. Bookman's St. Joseph's University faculty Web page
Milica Bookman Interview - Medical Tourism in Developing Countries
Rudy Rupak, Founder and President, PlanetHosptial
Rudy Rupak founded PlanetHospital by accident after his wife required medical attention in Thailand. He was impressed with the service and quality of the healthcare that was available at a fraction of the cost of health care in the United States. His background in healthcare, hospitality, software and insurance was the perfect fit to develop a company like PlanetHospital.
Prior to founding PlanetHospital Inc., Rudy worked diligently for three years to introduce the concept of Real Estate Title insurance into India by partnering with a major title insurance corporation in the United States and a governmental organization in India. During this period, Rudy started an overseas collections agency and was one of the first people to purchase bad debt from hospitals outright (using his collections agency to purchase the balance). Rudy also developed and sold Thailand's first international call center which was dedicated to the burgeoning spa industry there. Rudy now focuses on PlanetHospital, which has become the leading company in its field as well as a voice for consumer driven healthcare.
PlanetHospital Web site
PlanetHospital in the News
Additional reading:
Milica Z. Bookman and Karla R. Bookman, Medical Tourism in Developing Countries (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, August 2007)
Unmesh Kher, "Outsourcing Your Heart," Time Magazine, May 21, 2006:
Krysten Crawford, "Medical Tourism Agencies Take Operations Overseas,"
Business 2.0 Magazine, August 3 2006
Devon Herrick, "Medical Tourism Prompts Price Discussions," Health Care News (The Heartland Institute), October 1, 2006
Becca Hutchinson "Medical Tourism Growing Worldwide," U Daily (University of Delaware), July 25, 2005
CBS News, "Vacation, Adventure and Surgery?" 60 Minutes (CBS News), September 4, 2005
“Medicare Drug Negotiations: Can the Government get a Better Deal?”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
1:00 PM Eastern
Speaker:
Kyna Fong, Stanford University
Devon Herrick, Chair, Health Economics Roundtable, will moderate.
Slideshow (PDF, 125 K NABE Members only. )
This teleconference is available as a free podcast from NABE. Download it from our podcast page, or subscribe to the NABE Podcast series via iTunes.
Kyna Fong is a fourth-year Economics Ph.D. student at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where she works closely with professors including Alain Enthoven and Alan Garber. She received a B.A. in Applied Mathematics, summa cum laude, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Harvard University.
Her main research interests are the economics of health care and game theory. Currently, her research projects include designing an efficient mechanism for drug procurement and studying the strategic implications of quality and outcome reporting on providers. She has performed internal consulting for PacifiCare Health Systems, and was one of the first members of the Microeconomics group at Yahoo!.
She recently co-authored a commentary with Alain Enthoven on Medicare drug negotiation that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Ms. Fong also co-authored a brief analysis on Medicare drug negotiation with Dr. Enthoven published by the National Center for Policy Analysis.
“The ‘Wal-Mart Tax’ and State Medicaid Rules”
Teleconference sponsored by the NABE Health Economics Roundtable
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
2 PM Eastern
Speaker:
Michael J. Hicks, Associate Professor of Economics, Air Force Institute of Technology, and Research Professor, Marshall University
Perhaps 30 state legislatures have introduced legislation requiring businesses to provide a minimum level of expenditures on health care coverage to employees. Styled as a Fair Share Health Care Act, these legislative efforts are known colloquially as the “Wal-Mart Tax.” At least one state, Maryland, has passed this type of legislation (and over-ridden a gubernatorial veto). This conference is designed to provide members background on the economic issues surrounding the “Wal-Mart Tax” and state Medicaid rules.
Michael J. Hicks received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Tennessee in 1998. He has worked in academic and consultancies in regional, public finance, regulatory, and telecommunications economics. In addition to publication in a number of venues, he has participated in a number of regulatory and judicial proceedings and serves on a regulatory oversight board for special reclamation for the State of West Virginia. He is currently working on a book on Wal-Mart’s local impact. He is former Director of Research, Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University, and is currently an Associate Professor of Economics at the Air Force Institute of Technology and a Research Professor at Marshall University.
This teleconference is now a free podcast. Download it from the NABE Podcasting page or subscribe via iTunes or other service.
“Shopping for Health Care ”
Teleconference sponsored by the NABE Health Economics Roundtable
and co-sponsored by the NABE Technology Roundtable.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
11 AM EDT
This podcast is free, and can be downloaded from the NABE Podcasting page.
Speaker:
John C. Goodman, President, National Center Policy for Analysis
Many Europeans believe that in America health is rationed by price, whereas in Europe it is generally made available for free. In fact, health care is almost as free at the point of consumption in America as it is in Europe. We do not use price rationing. Instead we ration the same way other developed countries ration care - with our time. But rationing by waiting creates a net social loss.
To find radically different physician behavior, one must look at markets where third-party payers are not involved. If health insurance worked like the insurance people purchase for their homes and automobiles, reimbursements would cover the expected cost of care for most providers; but patients would be free to negotiate prices with individual providers and pay more for better service. Some assume that we need a new government program to kick-start needed technological changes. Yet the private sector already has developed many of the tools to solve these problems. And turn patients into medical shoppers.
“The President’s Health Care Agenda”
Teleconference sponsored by the NABE Health Economics Roundtable
Originally held Friday, March 3, 2006
4 PM EST
Speaker:
Roy Ramthun, Special Assistant to President Bush for Economic Policy.
You can purchase a podcast of this teleconference for $10. Please register on our secure server.
HERT Teleconference September 15
Michael A. Morrisey, Ph.D.
“Price Sensitivity in Health Care: Implications for Health Care Policy,”
Thursday, September 15
2-3 pm ET.
Dr. Morrisey is Professor of Health Economics and Health Insurance, University of Alabama-Birmingham and Director, UAB Lister Hill Center for Health Policy. Moderator for the sessionwas William "Denny" Dennis, Senior Research Fellow, NFIB Research Foundation.
Teleconference Slide Show (PDF, 282 K)