Aaron Carroll, MD

Listening to media coverage about the US health care system, it can seem impossible to get a real handle on what’s going on. Moreover, understanding what the future holds for health care reform, and how it will affect people, businesses, and the country doesn’t appear possible. This year is just as critical as the last one, when most of the major regulations and changes went into effect. Dr. Carroll, a leading expert on health care reform, uses publicly available data and unbiased research to cut through the rhetoric and clearly explain the coming changes, including:

· The Medicaid Expansion: What will happen in different states? What will it mean for individuals? For physicians? For hospitals? For the health care industry? Where are things moving?
· The Health Insurance Exchanges: Where do we stand in the implementation of this critical endeavor? What will it mean for businesses? For individuals? How will cases before the Supreme Court affect how exchanges function?
· New payment structures: What will Accountable Care mean to you? How will reimbursement change for health care providers?
· New regulations: The ACA brings with it new taxes, new fees, and new rules. Many of these are changing all of the time. How will they affect your industry?

Although great improvements in the use of information technology always seem to be right around the corner, our health care system is still in the Stone Age with respect to its use. It is shocking, and somewhat embarrassing, that while computers and information systems are the backbone of nearly every other industry or endeavor in the world, the health care system often lacks even the simplest of improvements. The HITECH Act promises to change all of this, and claims are being made that real innovation is just around the corner. This is even more true as company after company is promising that the collection, transmission, and analysis of digital health data will revolutionize the ways in which we improve health. But there are any number of barriers still standing in the way of progress.

Dr. Carroll discusses the many attempts made, why they have succeeded or failed, and how we can move forward. He covers the many misunderstandings of information technology, the potential it holds, and the limitations that are often ignored.

In this keynote, Dr. Aaron Carroll addresses the specific impact that consumer-originated technologies will have in health care and further how the marketplace will be affected by, and can take advantage of, new technologies that originate and develop in the consumer space. For example:

~ How will mobile apps, DIY health care kits, physician extenders and the one-click millennials impact healthcare?

~ How will consumers use the quality measures regulators publish?

Dr. Carroll co-owned one of the first companies to write medical software for Palm Pilots (and that really dates him). He will deliver his thoughts on mobile apps, Apple’s Healthkit, physician extenders, minute clinics, personal health records, and more. His expertise has been published at his blog theincidentaleconomist.com, in the medical literature, and in the New York Times, to name a few. Bottom line, those who learn how to leverage and embrace emerging technologies to cater to consumer expectations will drive the future of health care for those who deliver, pay for or regulate it.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, and Obamacare lives on. However, the future of healthcare is far from stable. The ruling made the Medicaid expansion “optional”, making the future murky for the 17 million Americans who should become uninsured through Medicaid in the future. Moreover, the political landscape of health care reform is still shifting, making the upcoming election a pivotal turning point in how our health care system works.

Unfortunately, listening to media coverage about the US health care system, it can seem impossible to get a real handle on what’s going on. Understanding what the future holds for health care reform, and how it will affect people, businesses, and the country doesn’t appear possible. Dr. Carroll, a leading expert on health care reform, uses publicly available data and unbiased research to cut through the rhetoric and clearly explain the issues with our current system. He explains how the Affordable Care Act will really work, details what it contains, and how it will likely be implemented over the next decade. At the conclusion, audience members truly gain an understanding of the complexity of the problem along with the trade-offs that are inevitable in trying to fix the $2.7 trillion US health care system.