Session 5: Information Technology and Health Care
This session will explore the potential for more extensive use of information technology to reduce the cost of health care (both one-time and ongoing growth) as well as to improve outcomes. We will discuss the hurdles—financial, technical, and institutional—that need to be surmounted to achieve these objectives.
Sponsor: Health Economic Roundtable
Presentations
Links of Interest
Speakers
Devon Herrick
Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis
Chair, NABE Health Economics Roundtable
Devon Herrick, Ph. D., concentrates on health care issues, such as Internet-based medicine, health insurance and the uninsured, as well as pharmaceutical drug issues. Other areas which Dr. Herrick focuses on include managed care, patient empowerment, medical privacy and technology-related issues.
Dr. Herrick has been responsible for the NCPA's computer and information services, as well as oversight of the design and maintenance of the NCPA's award-winning Web site - Idea House. He has training in financial analysis and health economics, and has conducted several major research projects for the NCPA, having published several research studies and papers on health policy. Herrick is a sought-after speaker on health policy issues.
Prior to joining the NCPA, Dr. Herrick was a research assistant at the Bruton Center for Development Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. The Bruton Center integrates geographic information systems, spatial analysis, and exploratory data analysis in the social sciences, applying research on trends, forces, and public policy. In addition, he spent six years working in health care accounting and financial management for a Dallas-area health care system.
Dr. Herrick received a Ph.D. in Political Economy and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Dallas with a concentration in economic development. Dr. Herrick's dissertation research examined patient empowerment through empirical analysis of the Internet and disease advocacy.
He also holds an MBA with a concentration in finance from Oklahoma City University and an MBA from Amber University, as well as a BS in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma.
John Bertko
F.S.A., M.A.A.A
John M. Bertko, F.S.A., M.A.A.A., served as vice president and chief actuary for Humana Inc., where he managed the corporate actuarial group and directed the coordination of work by actuaries in Humana's major business units, including public programs, commercial, individual, and TRICARE. Mr. Bertko has extensive experience with risk adjustment and has served in several public policy advisory roles, including prescription drug benefit design. He served the American Academy of Actuaries as a board member from 1994 to 1996 and as vice president for the health practice area from 1995 to 1996. He was a member of the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline from 1996 through 2002. Mr. Bertko is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He has a B.S. in mathematics from Case Western Reserve University.
Stephen Parente
University of Minnesota
Stephen Parente, associate professor in finance at the Carlson School of Management, studies the health care delivery system. He is especially interested in consumer-directed health plans.
"Consumer-directed health plans are the wave of the future and have the potential to drastically cut health insurance costs and reduce the number of uninsured," Parente explains.
In his current research, Parente is studying consumer-directed health plans, including health savings accounts (HSAs). In a new study recently published in Health Affairs, Parente looks at simulated adoption rates of HSAs in the wake of the Bush administration's refundable tax-credit proposals.
Parente is deputy director of the Carlson School's Medical Industry Leadership Initiative, which provides cutting-edge management research and leadership education for the health care supply chain.
Parente also holds joint appointments in the doctoral program in health services research at the School of Public Health and in the health informatics graduate program at the School of Medicine, both at the University of Minnesota.
He teaches graduate-level courses in health information technology, health economics, and medical technology evaluation.
