Event Archive

Senator Sherrod Brown Holds Roundtable Discussion on Health Care Reform with Ohio PFCD

February 18, 2009

A select group of representative partners in the Ohio Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD) held a roundtable discussion with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown last week. The Columbus Public Health Department, an Ohio PFCD partner, hosted the event, which focused on health care reform with an emphasis on primary care and prevention.

Around 25 groups, representing medical and nutrition professionals, hospitals, labor, business, public health, mental health, diabetes, minority health, physical activity and health plans were represented. Each representative offered observations on problems with the system of health care and direction on where reform efforts can address the problems. Although each organization mentioned specific concerns, all were consistent in noting the importance of prevention, primary care, coordination of care, encouraging health information technology, and addressing health disparities and health care costs.

The concept of a “medical home” or “health care home” was mentioned repeatedly. Ann Spicer, executive director of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians, said her group would like to see patient-centered medical homes for every Ohioan, where patients have an ongoing relationship with a primary care provider and have access to a support system. Other groups emphasized that nurses, nutritionists, mental health providers, dentists and others should be part of these medical homes.

The idea of encouraging or incentivizing prevention in the health care system was also mentioned repeatedly. Debbie Coleman, chief nursing office for Columbus Public Health, said we need to re-think the notion of episodic care and make it easier for people to be healthy through more health education – both in schools and in adult settings. Other groups echoed this sentiment and added that health care providers are not incentivized to encourage prevention or manage diseases because their payments are usually procedure-based.

Moreover, attendees agreed that prevention was a key part of reducing health care costs, a major issue for groups like the Ohio Business Roundtable and the Ohio AFL-CIO. The Ohio Business Roundtable said that health care reform was its No. 1 issue because the costs are such a burden on its Ohio corporate members. The Ohio AFL-CIO said the growth in health care costs in proportion to workers’ wages is unsustainable.

Each group looked at health care reform through a different point of view, but common ground was certainly found on the need to better manage and prevent chronic diseases during the nearly two-hour long discussion with Sen. Brown. Sen. Brown and his staff said they were impressed with the mix of people and organizations sitting around the table, and encouraged attendees to follow-up with the Washington, D.C. office’s health care legislative aides.

“The President and the Congress are in the process of turning their attention to more comprehensive health care reform so I really appreciate the thoughts and ideas that were shared today,” Senator Brown said. “I thank everyone here for your service to the state and to the country by providing good quality health care. We would like to rely on a better integrated and coordinated health care system. I know it’s very challenging and that you meet that challenge every day.”

We thank all of the attendees for their participation and insight, as well as Columbus Public Health for graciously hosting the event. The roundtable event was an opportunity to lift up the PFCD Principles for Meaningful Health Reform. The updated principles are a key part of the Partnership’s efforts at the federal level to influence the health reform dialogue. In addition, the PFCD will be issuing an updated version of the Almanac of Chronic Disease, which presents comprehensive facts that characterize the crisis of chronic disease and how it is contributing to problems with access, affordability and quality of care.