Wall Street Comes to Washington--A Fascinating Discussion Between Wall Street Analysts and the Washington Health Policy Community

Paul Ginsburg, of the Center for Studying Health System Change, has been hosting a conference for 12 years where he brings some of the leading Wall Street analysts following the health care sector to Washington and puts them in a room with 400 Washington health policy people.

The interchange, and the different perspectives, between the Wall Streeters and the Washington policy people is fascinating.

He conducts one panel focused on the health plan sector and another on the hospital, physician, and pharmaceutical side. Each panel lasts 90 minutes. I participated on the health plan panel--as I have done for a number of years.

Health plan panel topics included Medicare Advantage (including fee for service), Part D, commercial health plan profitability and cost trend, the renewed interest in wellness programs, consumer-driven care, and other current topics.

The provider panel topics included underlying health care cost trend drivers, hospital pricing, hospital competitive strategies, consolidation, and IT.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has the conference available on webcast. You can look at the panels separately.