Dr. David Sklar M.D, University of New Mexico
October 5, 2014 (Sun) 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UNM Continuing Education Auditorium

The U.S. health care system is in reality many health care systems. Government, insurance companies, the Veterans Administration and private individuals all contribute financially to the system and physicians can work as hospital employees, as private entrepreneurs, as members of physician group practices or as part of an integrated health system. The dominant payment system in the U.S. is a fee for service system in which physicians are paid based upon the services they provide. This system encourages physicians to do more procedures and testing than might be necessary and is one reason why the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world even though the quality of care appears to be lower than in many developed countries. We will discuss lessons we can learn from other countries to improve the health care provided in the U.S. and look at promising models currently under development in the U.S. We will consider access to health care, cost of health care and quality of health care and how these three important factors affect each other. We will then consider possible delivery system changes that could help to align cost, quality and access for a better future health care system.

David Sklar is the Editor-in-Chief for Academic Medicine, the leading journal in U.S. medical education, and a Distinguished Professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine. He is also a Health Policy Fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Institute of Medicine, Washington. DC. As a Health Policy Fellow, he worked closely with the directors of the Institute of Medicine, Congress, think tanks and various federal agencies to understand the interface between population health and health policy decisions and studied health care systems around the world. He spent 2011-2012 in the Senate Finance Committee as a Fellow on the Health Team. Prior to his current position, he was associate dean for graduate medical education at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

Lecture: $15/Members, $20/Non-Members; Students (under 26) with ID – Free.

Supported by New Mexico Humanities Council and Sandia National Labs