Advisors to the Obama, McCain and Clinton campaigns participated in a panel discussion titled "The Presidential Health Care Agenda" at the World Health Care Congress April 21 in Washington.

In the ADVANCE video presented below, see how Jim Cooper (Obama advisor), Thomas Miller (McCain advisor) and Chris Jennings (Clinton advisor) position their respective candidates. Former U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz and Kaiser Foundation CEO George Halvorson provide analysis. Read more »

WASHINGTON—Features that make it attractive for employers to offer health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements to employees also make them appealing as retiree health care funding vehicles, an expert says.

For employers who contribute to HSAs or HRAs, the costs are predictable; for employees, there are tax breaks such as tax-free accumulation of earnings and tax-free distributions taken to pay for health care expenses. Read more »

Delaware is the only state in the nation that, for the past three years, has not raised its health care premiums for state employees. Instead, employee contributions have remained flat at 5.8 percent, according to Jennifer W. Davis, director of Delaware’s Office of Management and Budget. Read more »

Last week, MEDecision welcomed Dr. Andy Schuyler on board as chief medical officer. And we wasted no time in putting him to work! On Monday we promptly dispatched Andy to the 5th Annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. where, along with Dr. Jim Barr, medical director of Partners in Care, a physician owned management company, he conducted the Market Insight Presentation “The Use of Patient Clinical Information to Affect Care.” Read more »

The last major effort at healthcare reform 15 years ago failed because of nervous consumers. TV ads featuring Harry and Louise, the fictional middle-class couple poring over President Clinton's plan for universal coverage, became symbolic of widespread resistance to the perceived heavy hand of nanny government, trying to force one size to fit all. Now, with exorbitant costs being the overriding concern, consumers—who drive those costs—may well be the system's best hope for reform. They're motivated: As the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just reported, the amount people pay for health insurance alone increased 30 percent between 2001 and 2005, while income went up a mere 3 percent. Read more »

Consumer-focused Care spoke with Kenneth Mayes, Marketing Director for Bumrungrad International, a leading player in medical travel/ medical tourism in Southeast Asia, as a world class, JCAHO accredited (the American hospital accrediting organization) facility. Read more »

James Roosevelt Jr., CEO, Tufts Health Plan, said “34% of adults in America are overweight and an additional 32% are obese. Obesity and the number of severely obese individuals in our country cost the U.S. economy in excess of $100 billion annually and results in 400,000 deaths”. He made his remarks at the 5th Annual World Health Care Congress held in April in Washington D.C. Read more »

Imagine a Health Care system that functioned like the consumer credit industry. Scott Kornhauser has. The CEO of Healthation thinks the system will ultimately deliver a personal health care score (like a credit FICO score) that drives what consumers pay for healthcare, complete with the ability to improve their rating over time with the right behaviors/performance. Read more »

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt knows in nine months his term will expire, but that doesn't mean HHS will slow down in advocating initiatives for value based health care.

"The value of care should replace the volume of care as the most important variable in the way we pay for and consume health care in this country," Leavitt told attendees last week at the 5th annual World Health Care Congress. Read more »

Before a whole week passes, I need to capture my interview with Gene Drabinski from Trizetto. Gene is the President of Cost and Quality of Care. This was a fun interview where we just kicked back at the end of day two at the World Healthcare Congress and talked. Read more »

Obesity and tobacco use are the “big dogs” of escalating health care costs that pose “a significant long-term threat to American business,” says Scotts Miracle-Gro Chairman and CEO James Hagedorn, and the company is taking aggressive, dramatic steps to shoo them away. Read more »

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said HHS has no intention of slacking off in its efforts to drive transparency into the U.S. healthcare system during the winding down of the Bush Administration.

At the Fifth Annual World Health Care Congress, held Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Leavitt said in his 272 days left as HHS secretary he has "a continued sense of urgency" and plans on picking up the pace to drive much-needed change. Read more »

At the fifth annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said his agency will continue to drive efforts to increase health information transparency and health IT adoption during the final months of the Bush administration, Healthcare IT News reports. Read more »

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Wednesday urged his successor to continue with the Bush administration's "four cornerstones" initiative that promotes collaborative efforts to improve the national health care system and reduce costs, CQ HealthBeat reports. Read more »

The secretary of the Health and Human Services Department urged his successor Wednesday to continue the department’s work toward a value-driven health care system he said would help lower costs and improve care. Read more »

The fifth edition of the World Health Care Congress (WHCC) in Washington brings together more than 2,000 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and government agencies. Read more »

The presidential debate on health care with this election is the most sophisticated, well-informed discussion we have every had on the national agenda in America" George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plans and Hospitals, told attendees yesterday at the fifth annual World Health Care Congress. Read more »

Michael Leavitt, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services spoke at the April 23 session of the World Health Care Congress on the topic of the value driven health care system.

He noted a study from Harvard has just been released showing that life expectancy is decreasing. This gives greater urgency to the topic of reform. Health care must change and while it may take a decade, the success or failure of pulling this off may define the success of this generation. Read more »

WASHINGTON, D.C. (APRIL 23, 2008) -- A social-based retirement living environment – when coupled with on-site medical centers, electronic medical records, wellness and fitness programs, and a Medicare-approved health plan – will result in cost effective health care that improves outcomes and increases patient satisfaction. That is the finding of an Erickson Health White Paper entitled “The High cost of Health Care for Seniors: Challenges and Solutions” presented this week at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. that was attended by more than 2,000 of the nation’s top health care leaders. Read more »