Health care reform employee forum set for Friday, Aug. 7

Employees at UNMC, The Nebraska Medical Center and UNMC Physicians will have the opportunity on Friday, Aug. 7, to learn about the latest in health care reform and how it may affect them, both as health care providers and consumers.

An employee forum — focused solely on health care reform and its impact — will begin at noon on Aug. 7 in the Durham Research Center Auditorium. It will be broadcast to sites in Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff.

More information Questions for the employee forum may be submitted online by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6, at https://app1.unmc.edu/forms/healthcarereform/question.cfm. Panelists also will take live audience questions. Water, lemonade and cookies will be provided at the forum. Those attending are welcome to bring their own lunch. The forum will be broadcast to the College of Nursing Lincoln Division Room 304; College of Dentistry Dixon Hall; College of Nursing Kearney Division Room 144W; and College of Nursing West Nebraska Division Room 201C.

“Health care reform an issue of utmost importance at the med center and across the country, and we have national experts who are resources on the various issues of reform,” said Mark Bowen, director of UNMC Government Relations.

UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., will provide the welcome at the forum, and Bowen will provide an overview of the status of proposed legislation in Congress. An ensuing panel discussion will feature health policy expert Keith Mueller, Ph.D., interim dean of the College of Public Health; Glenn Fosdick, FACHE, president and CEO of The Nebraska Medical Center; and Rodney Markin, M.D., Ph.D., president of UNMC Physicians.

The forum is part of the effort of UNMC, UNMC Physicians and The Nebraska Medical Center to be an objective resource for elected officials, business and community entities in communicating the potential impact of health care reform proposals.

As part of its efforts, the med center formed a health care review group to study the issues that will affect the medical center and its employees. The group includes 19 people from the medical center as well as the local business community.

Some of the issues of health care reform include:

• Universal health care coverage;
  
• A potential public insurance plan;
  
• Payments and Reimbursement Costs;
  
• Health care workforce & training.