Charlie Baker, Jeff Goldsmith and Alexandra Drane Debate Healthcare's Realities, Risks and Opportunities

DANVERS, Mass., Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Eliza Corporation ("Eliza") released a Podcast to discuss how the ACA, exchanges, consolidation, workplace clinics, consumer choice and other factors will shape the future of healthcare.

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Click here to listen to the Podcast.

Throughout the Podcast, Charlie Baker, Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst Partners and former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Jeff Goldsmith, one of the nation's foremost health industry analysts, in partnership with Alexandra Drane, Eliza's Founder and Chief Visionary Officer, offer insights about where healthcare is heading and the keys to success in 2013 and beyond.  The 43-minute Podcast addresses the following questions:

1. Is the Affordable Care Act implementable? [2:50]

2. Are the States ready for health exchanges?  Is the Federal Exchange ready? [5:00]

"There's a lot of money being spent by the private sector right now to put these private exchanges up and I think they have the potential to be really game changing on this…" - Charlie Baker

3. Will employers' interests to push employees to exchanges have an impact on people's overall healthcare? Is there evidence of defined contributions and/or workplace clinics? Will employers influence some employees to leverage exchanges and keep others on their plans?  If so, will this create risk for public exchanges? [10:15]

4. What specifically is not working? Is the consolidation helping or hurting? [15:00]

"There's going to be a whole new wave of cost shifting… and a lot of these increases are going to be blamed on the health insurance industry." - Jeff Goldsmith

5. How do you keep the physician realm viable, and keep a semblance of competitive tension in the provider networks? Are there enough doctors for the future? [25:25]

6. What can health plans do to respond to a tightening, consolidating healthcare delivery marketplace?  How is the provider community responding to all of the uncertainty?  Is anyone demonstrating the use of decisions support tools, alternative incentive structures and/or marketing initiatives well?  What are they doing? [27:20]          

"…We've been paying for people to react.  We've been paying for visits that are initiated by a complaint.  We've been paying for interventions.  We've been paying for hospital admissions.  We've been paying for procedures.  What we really need to be paying for is relationships.  And those relationships differ depending on the patients' needs.  There's some people that really don't need much of a relationship but need access, need questions answered, need problems solved..." - Jeff Goldsmith

7. As health plans begin to work differently, will physicians change the way they practice?  Will provider groups, ACO's, health plans, and others start to talk about advanced care, a subject that has been taboo, but is fundamental to addressing some of the unsustainable cost trends? [36:30]

"The great opportunity in health care is in tight relationship between plans and primary care driven physician groups around servicing complex populations…" – Charlie Baker

8. Do you think that the care you are going to get in 2015 will be better than the care you got in 2009? [40:41]

TWEET: Charlie Baker, Jeff Goldsmith @adrane @ElizaCorp [PODCAST] debate future of #health care #ACA #Medicare #Medicaid

About the Speakers:

• Charlie Baker, as an Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst Partners, focuses on investing in mid-size firms, primarily in the healthcare services industries. Charlie was the Republican nominee for Governor, losing a close four-way race to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.  Before that, he spent ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a $2 billion, 1 million member health benefits plan serving individuals and employers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.  Under his leadership, HPHC went from state receivership to #1 in the country for six years in a row for member satisfaction and clinical effectiveness. Charlie also served as CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, the largest independent multi-specialty physician practice in Eastern Massachusetts.  In the 1990s, he served as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Secretary of Administration and Finance under Massachusetts Governors Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci, where he earned the Distinguished Service Award from the National Governor's Association.
• Jeff Goldsmith is one of the nation's foremost health industry analysts, specializing in corporate strategy, trend analysis, health policy and emerging technologies. He has worked across the health system - hospitals, health plans, physicians groups, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health manufacturing and distribution sectors - advising senior management and Boards. Jeff Goldsmith is President of Health Futures, Inc. which helps guide venture and private equity investment in emerging technologies. He also is Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia.
• Alexandra Drane sets the vision and strategy for Eliza Corporation. Alexandra also is a co-founder of EngageWithGrace.org, a not-for-profit movement aimed at helping people understand, communicate and have honored their end-of-life wishes. Prior to founding Eliza, Alexandra was a founder of three other healthcare ventures - all focused on developing products that enable individual behavior change through the use of technology. Alexandra sits on the Board of Eliza, the Board of Advisors of TEDMED, the Harvard Executive Sleep Council, and is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (a Harvard Teaching Hospital) in Boston, MA.  She also sits on the Board of Directors and the Operations Committee of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and co-chairs C-TAC's Public Engagement Workgroup. Alexandra is a member of the Health Executive Leadership Network, Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation, and is a trustee of several charitable trusts.

About Eliza Corporation
Eliza Corporation ("Eliza") is devoted to making people happier, healthier, and more productive. The pioneer and recognized leader in Health Engagement Management, Eliza draws from more than 800 million interactions with people about their health, and blends business intelligence, technology, and communication expertise to improve care experiences, reduce costs and advance population health. Each program is powered by Eliza's engagement-based analytics and population segmentation, and delivered via our patented speech recognition technology, rich web and multi-modal delivery platform (including automated calls, emails, text messages, mail, social and mobile interactions). These programs consistently yield the best outcomes in the industry in terms of increased engagement, health and wellness measures, and sustainable ROI. Eliza was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.elizacorp.com.

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SOURCE Eliza Corporation