JU's Public Policy Inst. Hosts Healthcare Policy Conf.

Jacksonville University's Public Policy Institute is hosting an all day Healthcare Policy Conference on Wednesday November 13, 2013.   They've lined up some fairly impressive speakers (see below) and, apparently, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, almost committed to being a speaker but ultimately could not attend.  

The event will include presentations and panels by healthcare leaders and policymakers, as we address the Affordable Care Act in Florida, focusing on the healthcare exchanges and proposed Medicaid expansion.

MetroJacksonville well get to review a few of the presentations prior to the conference and we will be sharing excerpts on the site to get the conversation, or is it more of a debate, started.  

RSVP is required. Contact Camille to let her know that you are attending at choward6@ju.edu.

There is no cost to attend.

See conference schedule on page 4.

This will be the 2nd event the Public Policy Institute has organized to inform discussion on policy issues.

Speakers




Ford Koles, Executive Director, The Advisory Board Company, Washington, DC

Bradford S. Koles, Jr. is an Executive Director and the national spokesperson for the Advisory Board Company, a for-profit, publicly-traded research firm serving more than 2,600 of America's leading hospitals and health systems.  Mr. Koles' is one of the firm's preeminent thought-leaders in the area of health system economics and strategy, heading the faculty at the annual series of Chief Executive Officer meetings.  He is also the keynote speaker at the annual series of Health Care Advisory Board meetings, the firm's flagship program.  Mr. Koles is one of the best known and most requested speakers in the health care industry.

Mr. Koles is a health care economist by training with a wide-range of expertise in the provider industry.  He has been a dominant figure in the evolution and communication of every major Advisory Board Company research initiative since 1994, leaving him conversant in the history and current status of all the significant reform initiatives: coverage expansion, vertical integration and physician partnership models, managed care and payer contracting, horizontal integration and system economics of scale, quality-based competition and consumerism.Mr. Koles has been with the Advisory Board for twenty-one years.  Previous to his employment with the Advisory Board Company, he worked as a management consultant for both the Hay Group and Ernst & Young. Mr. Koles received his Master's Degree in economics from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor's Degree from Kenyon College.




Pat Geraghty, CEO, Florida Blue
 
Patrick “Pat” Geraghty is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer (CEO) of Florida Blue, the state’s largest health plan serving more than 7 million people in Florida and providing Medicare payment services to beneficiaries across 15 other states.
Prior to joining Florida Blue in 2011, Mr. Geraghty was president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBSMN).  Mr. Geraghty is leading a transformation at Florida Blue from insurance company to health solutions company with a strong health, wellness and prevention orientation.

Throughout his career, Mr. Geraghty has been active in community and professional organizations. He is a board member for a diverse group of organizations, including the National Institute of Health Care Management (NIHCM), Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, American’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Oliver Wyman Innovation Center Advisory Board. He is a member of United Way’s Board of Trustees and, in 2011, was appointed to the Florida Council of 100. In addition, Mr. Geraghty chaired the Minnesota chapter of CEOs Against Cancer and was selected the National CEO of the Year for 2011 by the American Cancer Society. Mr. Geraghty has also received many awards from the community. He received the 2013 Humanitarian of the Year Award from Kappa Alpha Psi for his leadership on diversity issues, the American Values Award for his outstanding leadership and commitment to the community from the North Florida Council Boy Scouts of America, The Jefferson Award for Public Service at BCBSMN, the 2012 Game Changer Award from Politic365 and the Gold Standard from the CEOs Roundtable in support of the American Cancer Society with BCBSMN and Florida Blue.

Mr. Geraghty frequently speaks on a range of health care topics including the impact of health care reform, payment reform strategies, innovation in health care and prevention and wellness. He has appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart” and “Capitol Gains” programs, Wall Street Journal’s “Money Beat”, Fox Business News and PBS Nightly Business Report. Additionally, Mr. Geraghty has been featured in Florida Trend magazine, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Florida Times Union, Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune, Tampa Bay Times and Orlando Sentinel, among other publications.

Mr. Geraghty holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and has participated in executive education programs at Harvard University School of Public Health and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.




Will Weatherford, Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives

Will Weatherford is a small business owner, husband and father who resides in Wesley Chapel, Florida. Will grew up in the Tampa area as the second oldest in a family of nine children. He was homeschooled and like his six brothers, played football at Land ‘O Lakes high school.
Will’s love for the game continued as he furthered his education at Jacksonville University where he earned a degree in business. It is also the place where he found his passion for public service. In college, he was elected Student Government Association Vice President and received the Outstanding Leadership award. After college, Will worked in the commercial real estate sector when Speaker of the House Allan Bense recruited him to serve in state government. Working with Speaker Bense, Will learned valuable lessons about servant leadership, integrity and fairness.

At that time, Will had no idea how important those days would be. In 2006, Will ran for the House of Representatives to represent Pasco County. He won his first race and returned to Tallahassee, this time representing his hometown as an elected official. Not a typical freshman, Will was able to use his knowledge of policy and the process to immediately tackle important issues. He has a record of championing education reform, promoting transparency and accountability in government, expanding school choice for Florida’s parents and children, and leading a redistricting process that put the process above politics that was upheld by a unanimous vote of the Florida Supreme Court.

Will’s inclusive leadership style earned him the confidence of his peers and they unanimously elected him Speaker of the House of Florida in 2012. Today, Will is the youngest Speaker in America. Over the years, Will has been recognized as a “Champion of Business;” a “Defender of Parents’ Rights” by the Florida Catholic Conference; “Legislator of the Year” by Able Trust for Disabled; and a “Top 12 State Legislators to Watch” by Governing Magazine. Will is a citizen legislator. He owns a small business and serves on the board of directors for Florida Traditions Bank based in Dade City. He is also involved in many charitable organizations such as Jobs for Americas Graduates and Florida’s Take Stock in Children program, where he serves as a mentor.




Don Gaetz, President, The Florida Senate

In 2006, Don Gaetz became the first non-legislator in more than 50 years to be elected to the Florida Senate without opposition. He was reelected to represent his Northwest Florida district in 2010 and 2012. Additionally, in November 2012, Senator Gaetz was unanimously elected by his colleagues to serve a two year term as President of the Florida Senate.  Before being elected to the Senate, President Gaetz was the Superintendent of the Okaloosa County School District.  During his term of office from 2000 to 2006 Okaloosa Schools became the highest performing public school system in Florida and won numerous national awards for academic excellence.

President Gaetz is the retired co-founder and vice chairman of a multi-state health care corporation and is a former president of the National Hospice Organization.  He is a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Niceville. President Gaetz and his wife, Victoria, have two children. His son, Matt Gaetz is State Representative for District 4 in Northwest Florida.  




Russ Armistead, CEO, UF Health

Russell Armistead, Jr (Russ) grew up in the small town of Mathews, VA, and started his career in public accounting as a CPA with Ernst & Young in Winston-Salem, NC.  After 6 years in public accounting, he went to work at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (formerly Bowman Gray School of Medicine), where he worked for 24 years, including VP for Health Services Administration of Wake Forest University and Senior Associate Dean for Administrative Services of WFU School of Medicine.

After Wake Forest, he had his own consulting firm, working with academic health centers and hospitals.  During that time, he served dual roles at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, as interim executive director of the MCO Hospitals and vice president for finance, CFO and treasurer.  This work resulted in the hospitals becoming profitable within a year and earned him accolades from the Toledo newspaper and the medical college.After that work and 9 years ago, he was recruited to the UF Health Science Center as Associate VP for finance and planning, working in Gainesville and in Jacksonville.  In January 2013, he was asked to be CEO of UF Health Jacksonville (Shands Jax) when Jim Burkhart resigned to become CEO of Tampa General Hospital.

Russ has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Accounting) from Va. Tech and an MBA from Wake Forest University.
Russ and Susan live in the Peninsula on the South Bank in Jacksonville.