Health Care Blog

Health Care Conference Calls Changing Lives, Engaging Thousands

For people like Sam, the HHS Partnership Center’s conference calls on the health care reform law, have helped connect them to affordable, quality health care coverage despite unemployment and a major pre-existing condition. In May, Sam was unemployed, could not afford health insurance and then experienced a massive heart attack. He survived his heart attack but now has a significant pre-existing condition that insurance companies either refuse to cover or cover at a very high cost.

Sam was on one of the interactive conference calls sponsored by the U.S. Health and Human Services Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships where he learned about the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, PCIP. He learned that he was eligible for affordable health care coverage that will cover all of his medical needs, including his pre-existing cardiac care. He went to http://www.pcip.gov for more information and now has the health care coverage he needs.

in 2012, the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will continue its series of interactive conference calls for faith and community leaders explaining the benefits and provisions of the new health care law. Over 800 people registered for a call on the Affordable Care Act and Behavioral Health. The call was so popular, it is being held again in early February.  To date, more than 5,000 faith and community leaders have participated in the HHS Partnership Center’s conference call series.

You can join the calls too!  To register for these calls, click on the links below. Please join us so that you can share the new health care information with members of your congregation and community!

Lines are opened for questions at the end of every call, giving listeners calling in from across the United States a unique opportunity to interact directly with HHS staff and ask questions they may have about the Affordable Care Act.

On January 19, the Center will also host a live, interactive tour of HealthCare.gov. The tour will highlight the site’s many resources to help people take control of their health, access affordable health care coverage in their communities, and understand how the law is being implemented in different states.

To learn more about future interactive conference calls on the Affordable Care Act, sign up for the HHS Partnership Center newsletter at www.hhs.gov/partnerships.

In January and February, conference calls will take place on: 

January 19, 3:00 pm EST–Tour of HealthCare.gov

January 24, 2:00 pm EST–  ACA 101 (in Spanish)

January 31, 12:30 pm EST–  ACA 101

February 2, 12:30 pm EST–  ACA and Behavioral Health

February 28, 2:00 pm EST–  ACA 101 (in Spanish)

America’s Ideas to Support Entrepreneurship in Education, Energy, and Health Care

In December, the Obama Administration announced the Startup America Policy Challenge to identify high-impact ideas to support entrepreneurship in areas of national interest: education, energy, and health care.

To kick off the challenge, Secretary Arne Duncan (Department of Education), Secretary Steven Chu (Department of Energy), and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Department of Health and Human Services) each asked the American public for ideas about how the U.S. government can break down barriers to entrepreneurship and enable the use of clean energy, digital learning, and health information technologies.

 On Quora, a public question and answer website, I asked the America people to respond to these specific questions:

• In the U.S. education system, what can the government do to best enable the use of new learning technologies?
• In the U.S. energy system, what can the government do to best enable the use of new clean energy technologies?
• In the U.S. healthcare system, what can the government do to best enable the use of new health information technologies?

  The response has been thoughtful, wide ranging, and inspiring. 

• On the subject of learning technologies, respondents had ideas to increase the flexibility of existing funds, spread best practices of what works, and improve basic infrastructure.  And a number of respondents provided feedback about reducing bureaucracy and empowering teachers.
• On the subject of clean energy technologies, respondents had ideas on how the US Government could support consumer awareness of clean energy, be an anchor customer, and invest in research and development. Respondents also suggested including negative externality costs into the price of fossil fuels, and were adamant that government not pick a “winning technology.”
• On the subject of health care IT, respondents proposed ideas to promote interoperability standards, ensure a greater focus on the end user experience, share industry best practices, and measure the impact of specific technologies.

 This is just a sampling of the great dialogue and answers – please feel free to vote on which ideas resonate with you and/or provide your own feedback.  In the White House and in the Agencies, we are reading your responses.

 To sharpen the dialogue a bit further and solicit additional input, I posted follow-up questions on Quora about specific barriers that customers face:

• Learning Technologies: Parents and teachers – what’s your biggest barrier to educating your kids that technology could solve?  How important is the ability to access your child’s assessment data in electronic form?
• Clean Energy:  Building and business owners – what’s your biggest barrier to using clean energy in your building or business?  How important is the ability to access your building energy usage data in electronic form?
• Health IT:  Doctors and patients – what’s your biggest barrier to using information technology to improve health outcomes?  How important is the ability to share or receive your health records data in electronic form?

 We look forward to hearing your feedback – so please keep it coming!

Aneesh Chopra is U.S. Chief Technology Officer