Health care conference Nov. 18

Fresno State will be the location of one of three regional conferences in the state designed to identify problems and suggest solutions in California’s health care system.

The conference is co-sponsored by Fresno State, UC Berkeley, UC Stanford, UCLA and UC San Francisco, in conjunction with RAND Corporation/RAND Health and The Communications Institute.

“Health Care in California: Confronting the Future” will be held at Fresno State from 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. on Nov. 18 in the Satellite Student Union. The other locations are UCLA on Oct. 4 and UC Berkeley on Dec. 1.  

The three conferences are chaired by California State Assembly Members Joe Nation (D-San Rafael) and Dr. Keith Richman (R-Northridge). Featuring a curriculum developed and conducted by the RAND Corporation, California leaders from all sectors will be on hand to discuss the current and future state of health care availability, costs and functionality in the state.

The conferences are designed to provide impetus for improving California’s health care system, instead of just identifying problems. Experts will discuss steps for improvement that can be taken by both public and private sectors of the health care industry.                                                                

The discussions will focus on initiatives to create better health care options for citizens, and confront the question of how to make health care more affordable for individuals, families, small businesses as well as large corporations.

      The discussion topics and speakers are:

• Putting the Health Care System in Perspective, Dana Goldman, director of Health Economics for RAND.
• Measuring Health Care Quality and Access, Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director, RAND Health and director of the Center for Research on Quality in Health Care.
• Where do We Go from Here? Perspectives from Health Care Experts, a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Robert Brook, vice president and director of RAND Health.
• Confronting the Issues: A Time for Action, an interactive discussion with representatives from government, consumers, payers, medical professionals, hospitals, labor, health insurance carriers and the pharmaceutical industry, moderated by Assembly Members Nation and Richman.

The fee for registration is $75 and includes a continental breakfast, lunch and materials as well as a special RAND research report focused on health care in California.   To register, go to www.communicationsinstitute.org.  For more information contact The Communications Institute at (626)796-4747, or programs@communicationsinstitute.org.