The feature topic of our April 27 meeting was Congressional and Administrative Priorities for Health Care in the New Congress.
As speakers, we had two partners from Pillsbury Winthrop's public policy group, Tom O'Donnell and David Main, along with Fred Hannett, Chair of the HIMSS Government Relations Roundtable and Richard Coyne, an independent consultant formerly with CMS. We discussed how the priorities for healthcare in the new Congress are shaping up, the effects of new Democratic Committee chairs and their staffs in both the House and the Senate, how these priorities are affecting the Administration's priorities, and especially what it all means for information technology, pharmaceutical issues, and medical devices.
By way of introduction, Tom O'Donnell served as Special Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the White House National Economic Council during the Clinton Administration and was Managing Director of the Democratic National Convention in 2000, among other posts. David Main served as Counsel to the Senate Committee on Health and Scientific Research and health aide to Richard Schweiker, formerly Senator from Pennsylvania, Ranking member of the Senate Health Subcommittee and Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Reagan Administration.