Stepping up efforts to engage Rhode Island business leaders in transforming health care, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy assembled nearly 40 CEOs and senior executives on Dec. 16 to discuss technology, wellness programs and how they can help.
The event, at the RISD Museum, featured former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has become an advocate of health care reform and an unlikely ally of Kennedy’s.
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Gingrich’s agenda is a little broader – and more distinctly Republican – than the two men tend to let on: He’s also a fan of health savings accounts and tax credits as a way to help the poor afford insurance; he also likes to stress people’s responsibility for their health.
But the overlap is still considered substantial, and Carcieri is on the same page. So for nearly three hours, Carcieri, Gingrich and – on video from Washington – Kennedy preached to leaders of companies that together employ more than 70,000 Rhode Islanders, including the CEOs of Amica Mutual Insurance Co., CVS Corp., Hasbro Inc. and Lifespan, three college presidents, and local executives for Bank of America, Pfizer and Fidelity Investments.
Citing government’s failures during Hurricane Katrina and the threats from avian flu and terrorism, Gingrich argued that a “21st-century” health care system built on interconnected electronic records is crucial to homeland security.
Kennedy acknowledged that IT isn’t a cure-all, but he said it’s a key to improving safety and quality, because it will give patients and doctors better access to information, reduce waits and test duplication, and provide data to guide further improvements.
Rhode Island is already moving in that direction, Kennedy and Carcieri said, working to develop a statewide health information network, aided by a $5 million federal grant, and through several initiatives of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, a collaborative effort by hospitals, doctors, insurers and government.
Now businesses must take a more active role, they argued. They asked for three things:
n Join the new CEO Council of the Rhode Island Business Group on Health, a newly formed alliance that is bringing a business voice to ongoing efforts and developing its own agenda.
“My goal is to make Rhode Island a model in the nation for health care and health care transformation,” Carcieri said at a news conference afterward. The state’s efforts have strong bipartisan support, he noted – in fact, his expected opponent in next year’s gubernatorial race, Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, also attended – and business is “an important part” of them.
The financial consequences of not fixing the health care system were clearly on everyone’s minds as well, especially the employers’. Roger Mandle, president of Rhode Island School of Design, said the cost of health care has become “astounding,” to the point that premium hikes consume the entirety of RISD’s annual tuition increases.
Merrill W. Sherman, president and CEO of Bank Rhode Island, said businesses have an economic and “moral interest” in improving health care, and a key part is to “set the tone” for their workers as consumers of health services, especially by promoting wellness.
Sid Goldman, president of Greylawn Foods, urged Carcieri to let businesses take a more active role by allowing them, through collective purchasing, to reshape health care – just as they did with workers’ compensation more than a decade ago. The law currently forbids it.
Carcieri said lifting the ban is “one of the things we’re considering,” but he warned that without broader changes, “all you’re going to do is band together, and somebody else is going to pay.”
