Gov. Martz To Host Health Care Summitt In Missoula 4/27-28

2004-04-27 08:00:00
April 27, Holiday Inn Parkside , April 28, St. Patrick Hospital’s conference center

Gov. Judy Martz and her staff will hold the state’s third Governor’s Health Care Summit in Missoula later this month.

The agenda holds a slate of luminaries as speakers and panelists, including the Food and Drug Administration’s chief of pharmacy affairs, the state medical officer and all the Montana gubernatorial candidates.

By GINNY MERRIAM of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/04/08/news/local/news03.txt

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson is invited to be the keynote speaker but has not confirmed he can travel to Montana.

They expect the summit to draw about 250 people to Missoula.

"The immediate interest is tremendous," said Jean Branscum, the governor’s adviser on health care policy and assistant chief of staff.

Branscum and Linda Ashworth, director of special projects for the governor’s office, were in Missoula working on the conference on Tuesday. It will be held Tuesday, April 27, at the Holiday Inn Parkside and on Wednesday, April 28, at St. Patrick Hospital’s conference center.

This year’s theme, "A Roadmap to a Healthy Montana," refers both to the progress in health care policy that has been made since the annual summits have begun and to the work that is ahead, Branscum and Ashworth said.

For instance, a proposal for a hospital bed fee came out of the first summit, held in Bozeman. It uses a tax collected from hospitals to leverage federal matching money to pay hospitals to offset their costs in treating Medicaid patients.

"Now, a couple of months ago, we handed those first checks out," Branscum said.

The biggest challenge of today and the future is health care costs, she said. Understanding where the spiraling costs begin requires identifying the drivers, which is not an easy task.

"It’s so complex," she said. "And it’s so complex to break that out and see what you can do at the state level."

The summit will include a panel on prescription drug importation on Tuesday evening. Dave Forbes, dean of the University of Montana’s School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences, will moderate a panel that includes Thomas McGinnis, director of pharmacy affairs for the FDA. Canadian officials have been invited.

A panel on federal policy and Medicare modernization will include Liz Fowler of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Other panels will take on health care affordability, health care access and "Transforming Montana’s Health Care Delivery System."

A gubernatorial candidate forum will include all eight candidates for governor.

"We want to hear from all the candidates what they think are the most important health care issues and how they would address them," Branscum said.

The summit will also include updates on the progress made with the state planning grant for the uninsured and the Medicaid redesign group.

There will also be discussion of disease prevention in such areas as obesity, heart disease, sexual abstinence and diabetes.

Registration for the conference is $50, which includes lunch. Registration forms, housing information and the tentative agenda are available online at http://www.discoveringmontana.com/gov2/summit. Questions? Call Branscum or Ashworth in the governor’s office at 444-3111.

Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at

To attend the summit

Registration forms, housing information and the tentative agenda for the Governor’s Health Care Summit on April 27-28 in Missoula are available online at http://www.discoveringmontana.com/gov2/summit.

Registration for the conference is $50, which includes lunch. For more information, call Jean Branscum or Linda Ashworth in the governor’s office at 444-3111.