Summit to counsel cities on reform

Now that health reform is law, a local not-for-profit group is hoping to help Indiana community leaders use the law to slow runaway medical spending while improving the health of their citizens.

Better Healthcare for Indiana will hold a day-long discussion about grass-roots health care reform on June 2 at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.

The conference, titled “All Healthcare is Local,” will feature speeches by health economist Len Nichols, a veteran of the Clinton health reform effort and now a health policy professor at George Mason University, and Dick Pettingill, a former hospital CEO who is now a leadership fellow at Harvard University.

“Health reform is a participation sport, and the recent federal legislation has many opportunities for engagement that can make implementation reflect and respect America’s diversity, or not,” Nichols said in a statement. “It all depends on how communities respond. America will likely never have one health system, but rather, an overlapping set of systems, virtually all of which need improvement in the crucial dimensions of safety, quality and efficiency."

The event is co-sponsored by the Marion County Health Department and St. Vincent Health. Representatives from eight chambers of commerce, including the state and Indianapolis chambers, will attend the event, along with other community leaders from around the state. Better Healthcare for Indiana hosted a similar event in December, which you can read about here.