On Monday, November 18, all of the first year masters students from the Department of Health Policy and Management were invited to CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield at Canton Crossing to have lunch and meet with CareFirst executives, including President and CEO Chet Burrell. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for the MHA program’s fourth annual visit. The agenda, established in late September, called for CareFirst to share its perspective on issues related to healthcare reform. No one imagined that Chet Burrell would be called to the White House on Friday, November 15th, to be asked by President Obama to extend the policies of the 50,000+ members who recently were informed that their policies were out of compliance with the ACA. As the extension would not be possible without emergency legislation, much of Mr. Burrell‘s morning and early afternoon on the 18th was preempted by a meeting with U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin.
While waiting for Mr. Burrell, students had the opportunity to meet John O’Brien (twitter:@drjmob), a 2006 JHSPH MPH graduate who, after spending a number of years working “on the Hill”, is now CareFirst’s VP of Public Policy. Once Mr. Burrell arrived at the session, he provided his Hopkins guests with his candid assessment of the seriousness of the problems behind the Heath Insurance Exchanges and the ACA in general. He anticipates that what lies ahead are significant price increases in the insurance market. Yet, Mr. Burrell concluded his presentation on an optimistic note stating that the problems in healthcare are solvable. He referred to some innovative strategies for controlling health care costs through incentive-based product design, making specific reference to CareFirst’s success with patient centered medical homes. (This success was corroborated the following week when MHA students met with the Dr. George Lowe, Medical Director of Mercy Medical’s Lutherville Physician Practice which served as a pilot for CareFirst’s PCMH.) Before rushing back to prepare for his Tuesday meeting with Governor O’Malley, Mr. Burrell encouraged students to start their careers pursuing a purpose that is bigger and more important than themselves or money.