April 3—The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is hosting a discussion, "Is There a Solution to the Medicare Physician Payment Problem?” The discussion is in response to the upcoming cuts to the Medicare fees paid to physicians, which will be cut automatically 10 percent next year, with additional cuts of about 5 percent every year beginning in 2009. Physicians are protesting the cuts.
April 3—George Washington University School of Public and Health Services is hosting a discussion, "Protecting the Nation's Health: Major Challenges of the 21st Century.” The panel will feature six former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including Jeffrey Koplan, David Satcher, William Roper, James Mason, William Foege, and David Sencer.
April 4—The Senate Finance Committee is hosting a ski-season junket to Billings, Mt. for a field hearing "The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in Action: A State's Perspective on CHIP." Included in the discussion is Barbara Lyons, deputy director of the Kaiser Family Foundation Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured; Joan Miles, director of the Montana Department of Health and Human Services; Janis Langohr, a pediatrician with the Children's Clinic in Billings. Attending the session is Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA).
