Every year the Lake Nona Impact Forum brings together chief executives, health care innovators and thought leaders from various industries to discuss some of the most pressing topics in our country – health care, technology, education and sustainability. It is my privilege to once again be a part of these important conversations.
It’s an honor to welcome so many prominent individuals to our GuideWell Innovation Center, which is a place we created as a hub for innovation and collaboration. That’s exactly what this convening is designed for – bringing unique ideas from different industries and perspectives together to discuss ways we can utilize innovation to improve wellness, affordability of care, and overall quality of life.
Just before the Impact Forum kicked off, we welcomed CMS Administrator Seema Verma to our GuideWell Innovation Center. During her visit, we presented an interoperability demo to showcase how we’re working to accelerate data exchange. We also hosted a roundtable discussion with some of the startup companies GuideWell has sourced during our various innovation challenges. It was a distinct pleasure to show her how we’re innovating as a health solutions enterprise to drive affordability and access to care for our members and communities.
On Thursday morning, I had an opportunity to share some of my points of view while participating in a panel discussion on health policy with Mark McClellan, former commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. During the session, moderated by Fortune Magazine Editor-in-Chief Clifton Leaf, we discussed some of the most pressing topics facing our industry, including drug prices, the ACA and health care reform.
At GuideWell, we believe everyone should have access to affordable, high-quality health care – it’s one of the most important issues facing the nation. As a health solutions enterprise, we support programs and policies that allow even more people to have access to the care they need when they need it, in a way that is affordable.
We are committed to reimagining health care through an approach focused on a “wellness” model instead of a “sickness” model. Part of our strategy includes providing our health insurance members access to self-help tools and health care resources that focus on their overall well-being.
To address affordability, we must continue to work with the invaluable provider community in unique and collaborative ways. We’re creating and expanding arrangements (known as “value-based arrangements”) to more directly link provider payments to quality and health outcome measures of our members. In this way, GuideWell and these health care providers are working together even more closely to help our members get and stay healthy, and to lower the overall cost of health care.
These are just a couple of ways in which we are helping to drive the transformation around affordable, high-quality care. GuideWell continues to explore factors outside the traditional health care model – such as food security, health equity and mental well-being – that can impact health and costs, proving our holistic approach toward our mission of helping people and communities achieve better health.
While the discussions that took place at the forum were important, our work is far from over. As an industry, we must continue the conversations and partnerships established here as we all strive to build healthy communities and make our health care system the best it can be.