I saw Elizabeth Roberts at a fundraiser we attended this past weekend. She said that the numbers showing up for the Healthy RI sessions increased from the first session to the second, and they are hoping for even greater attendance tomorrow. Details of tomorrow’s session are as follows:

PROVIDENCE—Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts will convene the third session of Mission: Healthy RI this Friday, December 7th from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. at the Business Innovation Factory located at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation’s headquarters on Valley Street . This week, participants will hear from Christine Ferguson, the former director of the Rhode Island Department of Human Services under Governor Lincoln Almond and an expert in the state’s use of federal funds for health care, including RIte Care. Ferguson will lead a discussion on the current state of the Rhode Island Medicaid programs, the future of federal health funding, and the potential for leveraging public health care dollars as we move forward toward covering all Rhode Islanders.

Mission: Healthy RI is an advisory work group of representatives from the medical community, the insurance industry, hospitals, business owners, labor leaders, patients, and other stakeholders. The group will work with Roberts as she moves the state toward a plan to ensure that all Rhode Islanders have access to the highest quality health care at a cost they can afford. Roberts plans to introduce a package of health care reform legislation during the 2008 session.

Over the next two months, Lt. Gov. Roberts’ Mission: Healthy RI advisory work group will focus closely on specific issues that surround the complicated process of comprehensive health care reform. The deliberations and dialogue during each session will be framed by presentations from national and local experts who have experience in specific areas surrounding reform.

Mission: Healthy Rhode Island is open to the public. Invitations were sent out to key stakeholders and members of the public are encouraged both to attend and participate. All sessions will be on Friday morning and will start promptly at 7:30 a.m. and end by 9:00 a.m., with media availability of both the speaker and Lt. Gov. Roberts directly following the session. Sessions are scheduled for December 7th, 14th, 21st, January 4th, 11th, and 18th.

Who: Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts; attendees of the Mission: Healthy RI advisory work group; members of the public

What: Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts to host second session of Mission: Healthy RI

When: Friday, December 7, 2007
7:30 a.m.- 9:00 a.m.

Where: Economic Development Corporation Headquarters
Business Innovation Factory
American Locomotive Works Development
555 Valley Street, Providence

Though I am not able to attend tomorrow’s session, I hope to get to at least one of these and bring up some ideas on how to increase quality and decrease costs in health care. As I discussed in an earlier post, USA Today recently did a series of articles called called “Prescription for Change” which outlined a number of ways we could decrease costs and increase quality such as:

Advance Directives: One way is to allow states to give people the option of limiting their end of life care, helping them with forms that clarify advance directives. Some states are already doing this to good effect, and Rhode Island could follow their lead.

Reduce Costly and Ineffective Surgeries: Another way is for doctors to perform less surgeries that are costly and often ineffective. Government could support this practice by providing more public information online and in print for people to review the research on effectiveness for controversial surgeries.

Use Generic, Safer Medicines First: Another practice guideline that could be supported by government is better effectiveness and safety research on medicines before they are put on the market (i.e. regulations and guidelines that reduce corporate influence of the FDA). Generic, cheaper medicines should be given first consideration when the newer, expensive options are not proven to be more effective and may have more dangerous side effects.