Dear Colleague:
On behalf of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends (CFACT), we cordially invite you to attend the AHRQ 2008 Conference: Promoting Quality…Partnering for Change. The conference will be held on September 7-10, 2008, at the Bethesda North Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, MD. As part of this conference, our center will be sponsoring several sessions that may be of particular interest to you.
Now more than ever, policymakers need to have access to current research, analysis, and data on the U.S. health care system. A number of sessions at the conference feature some of the latest findings from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). The MEPS sessions will include presentations of current research on key aspects of health care costs and insurance coverage including—the affordability of health insurance, the financial burdens of coverage and who is paying for health care, the impact of state health insurance mandates and of rising premiums on employers’ health insurance decisions and access to care for those with private insurance from the individual market. Leading policy experts will discuss what these findings mean in today’s policy world. The preliminary agenda includes a policy track on the issues listed above that we think will be of interest to Federal, state and local policymakers and two additional sessions of more general interest on the Agency priority areas of disparities and cost.
If you are interested in attending this meeting, please register for the conference at www.blsmeetings.net/2008ahrqannual/. You may also forward this invitation to other appropriate persons in your organization. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.
Sincerely,| Joel W. Cohen, Ph.D. Director, Division of Social and Economic Research CFACT |
Jessica S. Banthin, Ph.D. Director, Division of Modeling and Simulation CFACT |
Enclosure
Research from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
Bethesda North Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, MD
Preliminary Agenda
| Tuesday, September 9, 2008 | ||||
| Sessions for Federal, State and Local Policymakers |
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| 1:00-2:30 | Trends in Health Insurance Coverage and Access | |||
| Impact of State Health Insurance Mandates on Self Insurance,
1997-2005 Philip Cooper, Ginger Jin, and Kosali Ilayperuma Simon |
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| Affordability of Health Insurance: The Role of Assets and Wealth
Didem Bernard, Jessica Banthin and Bill Encinosa |
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| Premium Growth and Its Effect on Employer-Sponsored Insurance Jessica Vistnes and Tom Selden |
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| Individual Coverage and Access to Care Steven C. Hill and Joel Cohen |
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| Discussants: Chris Peterson, Congressional Research Service Jeff Lemieux, America’s Health Insurance Plans |
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| 3:00-4:30 | Health Care Financing and Coverage Decisions | |||
| Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Healthcare in the U.S. Thomas M. Selden |
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| Financial Burdens for Health Care among Low Income Families Jessica Banthin and Didem Bernard |
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| Prescription Drug Expenditures and Healthcare Burdens in the
Medicaid Population Ed Miller, Jessica Banthin and Tom Selden |
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| Cost Sharing Arrangements in Medicaid and SCHIP: Implications for
Out-of-Pocket Spending Burdens Tom Selden, Genevieve Kenney, Matthew Pantell, and Joel Ruhter |
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| Discussants: James Baumgardner, Congressional Budget Office William M. Sage, The University of Texas at Austin |
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| Monday, September 8, 2008 | ||||
| Other Sessions Featuring Research Using the MEPS |
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| 1:00-2:30 | Research Findings on Racial and Ethnic Differences in Care | |||
| Differences in Access to Care for Asian and White Adults Merrile Sing |
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| Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Children’s Use of
Stimulant Medications James Kirby, Julie Hudson and G. Edward Miller |
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| Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Childhood Asthma Treatment and
Outcomes: The Role of Disease Severity G. Edward Miller, Julie Hudson and James Kirby |
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| Determinants of Asthma Morbidity in an Urban Population Juan Wisnivesky |
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| 3:00-4:30 | Chronic Conditions, Coverage and Costs | |||
| Care for Diabetes and Outcomes Steven C. Hill, Merrile Sing and G. Edward Miller |
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| Using Information on Clinical Conditions to Predict High Cost
Patients Joel Cohen and John Fleishman |
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| Obesity and Health Insurance Lan Liang and Barbara Schone |
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| Employment Sorting by Size: The Role of Health Insurance Barbara Schone and Lan Liang |
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