(Dallas, TX), Friday, March 22, 2013, Belo Mansion
Axxess Technology Solutions sponsored the recent luncheon of the Dallas Friday Group entitled: “Health Care Changes and the Impact on Key Stakeholders”, a panel discussion held on March 22, at the Belo Mansion in Downtown Dallas. Axxess is a leading technology provider of web-based software that enables home health agency to more efficiently operate their businesses. Axxess is based in Dallas.
The esteemed panel was composed of Stephen Mansfield, PhD, President and CEO, Methodist Health System; Jason Motter, Regional VP, CIGNA Healthcare, Vice President of Sales, North Texas at CIGNA; Marjorie Petty, Regional Director, Region VI, Department of Health and Human Services. The panel was moderated by W. Stephen Love, President and CEO, Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
The noontime session’s panel discussion was quite lively with many questions and great interest coming from the audience in the packed out banquet hall. The complex interplay between hospitals, the government and insurance were featured and candidly explored by the panelists, who succinctly stated their relative positions as representatives of their segment of the healthcare industry. Dr. Mansfield is the chair elect of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce (DRC). DRC representatives Matthew Miller and Adrian Killebrew attended the event as guests of Axxess.
A present day issue that was thoroughly examined is the State of Texas Medicaid status. As of March 22nd, 2013, the state of Texas has elected to not receive the benefit of any of the purported $8.8 billion in expansion funding for Texas from the CMS Medicaid expansion program. The HHS Regional Director, Ms. Petty, stated that the federal government is patient and is willing to abide up to three years to allow states such as Texas to have time to re-consider their strategy. Not only does this issue impact physicians, patients, skilled nursing facilities and hospitals, but also could have an effect on home health agencies in Texas, with a direct effect on job creation in the state. The chamber representatives from several cities including Dallas will be petitioning the state government in Austin to reconsider their position regarding the Medicaid expansion funding, which, with its $8 Billion impact on the State’s GDP, will positively impact healthcare related jobs in Texas, according to the chamber officers who sat with Axxess representatives.
Another issue that was discussed was the state of overall health of the population of the US. The problems of people accepting responsibility for their own health was brought to the attention of the audience. The case of smoking reduction across the US for the past 30 years was mentioned as a positive public awareness outcome. Dr. Mansfield mentioned statistics about this decades-long effort. Now, he stated, the public must be made aware of the effects of obesity on our overall population. While discussing this topic, Dr. Mansfield introduced the idea at Methodist of incentives and disincentives that employers could enact to try to effect the status of the health of employees. Disincentives, for example, would be the levying of higher healthcare insurance premiums for those who refused to be subjected to biometric scans, higher premiums for smokers, and a commitment from employees to lower their body mass index ratios should those equal to 30 or above. These methods have been introduced at Methodist Health System, and have had positive results in a short time. He closed with the opinion that our society would not affected by public awareness campaigns about obesity and healthy lifestyles for another generation, or roughly three decades.
Clearly these panelists were authorities in their respective fields and received a very positive response from those attending.
Axxess’ sponsorship was very much appreciated by many of those in attendance. Axxess is a sponsoring member of the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce and is proud to be associated with the Dallas Friday Group, a non-profit, non-partisan organization (formed in 1978) of business people who share an interest in public affairs & business issues, and whose purpose is to provide a forum for the exchange of information on current events that impact our lives, communities and the business climate in Metropolitan Dallas.
Sam Smith, Jason Motter VP CIGNA, Andrew Olowu, Andrew Awoniyi PhD.
