Doctors, hospitals, political leaders, health insurers and employers who are reshaping the nation’s health care delivery system will gather to exchange views on the rapidly evolving landscape Thursday at the Woodbridge Hilton.
“We see the conference as a catalyst to get people excited about finding real solutions for health care,” said Dr. Simon J. Samaha, CEO of Summit Medical Group, the state’s largest multispecialty group, with more than 200 physicians. “We believe the best models will come out of business leaders getting together and having conversations they never had before.”
He said the conference brings together a diverse collection of health care stakeholders “to talk about how we can work together to drive costs down.” The conference will run from 7:30 to 11 a.m.
U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Westfield) will be a keynote speaker at the conference, “The Rapidly Changing Healthcare Delivery Model.” Also keynoting is Jonathan Bush, CEO of Athenahealth Inc., a provider of cloud-based business and clinical services for physician practices.
Attorney Frank T. Cannone, chair of the corporate department at Gibbons P.C., which is convening the conference, said, “We will have, in one forum, some of the leading decision makers and thinkers on health care.”
These include Dr. Christopher T. Olivia, CEO of the hospital system West Penn Allegheny Health System, which in June reached a tentative deal to be acquired by Pittsburgh health insurer Highmark Inc. Joining Olivia on a panel is Dr. Richard Popiel, who heads Horizon Healthcare Innovations, a new division of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey that is pioneering health care models aimed at creating incentives to elevate clinical outcomes and lower costs. They will be joined by Joseph M. DiBella, managing director of insurance broker Conner, Strong & Buckelew; and Hercules Angelatos, senior vice president of the ocean shipping company Hapag-Lloyd America.
A panel on health care partnerships and alliances features Barry H. Ostrowksy, president of St. Barnabas Health Care System; Charles Catalano, general manger of Cigna HealthCare; Deborah McEwan, executive vice president of insurance broker Brown & Brown Metro; and Charles T. Wall, senior vice president of United Water.
Cannone said the health care industry “has to provide quality care in a more efficient way, and that will happen by bringing together the players: brokers, providers, payers, employers. They each have to understand each other’s business and needs. This is incredibly involved and complex — it’s not an easy task, and it requires a collaborative effort.”
