Peter Schorsch
Health-care discussions will shift from Tallahassee to Orlando this week as the Foundation of the Associated Industries of Florida hosts a health-care summit through Tuesday.
The 2015 Health Care Affordability Summit features familiar faces, with the likes of state Sens. Aaron Bean, R-Jacksonville, and Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, and state Reps. Carey Pigman, R-Avon Park, and Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, moderating panels of experts who will address everything from defensive medicine and rising health-care costs to the use of technology to the effect of wellness on Florida’s workforce.
Deputy Secretary for Medicaid Justin Senior also will be at the summit and will discuss “the new realities of health coverage in Florida.”
The keynote address will be delivered by Eliot Fishman Ph.D., director of the Children and Adults Health Programs Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Fishman has worked on “promoting innovation in Medicaid” throughout his career both in government and in the private sector. Before joining CMS in 2013 Fishman was a principal at Health Management Associates. He also was vice president of Metropolitan Jewish Health System in New York.
The Foundation of AIF was founded in 2008 as an educational arm of AIF, one of the largest business organizations in the state. AIF has supported Medicaid expansion and in 2014 played a key role in developing a proposal to help extend health-care access to nearly 1 million people called A Healthy Florida Works.
Tom Feeney, president and CEO of AIF, described the lineup of speakers as the “a collection of the brightest minds in our industry” and the “innovators who are shaping Florida’s health-care landscape.”
