Prevention Matters

Dr. Jason Spangler, managing senior fellow at Partnership for Prevention, recently participated in a conference on "The Dollars and Sense of Prevention" that was sponsored by the Center for Studying Health System Change. He was joined by Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, Professor of Internal Medicine and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan and Dr. Steven H. Woolf, Professor of Family Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. A transcript of that conference - including Powerpoint presentations - is available online by clicking here.

Dr. Steven H. Woolf attracted national attention in February with a commentary he wrote in JAMA about the value of prevention in the health reform debate. That commentary synthesized a scholarly paper Woolf and others prepared for Partnership for Prevention rebutting critics who have downplayed prevention's place in the debate on the grouds that it did not save money.

Woolf, a professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, has now been invited to address the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute 2009 about his work. He will speak at a session on "The Economics of Disease Prevention" that is scheduled for for 11:40 am Thursday, June 4, at the San Diego Convention Center.

"Your recent article in JAMA and your work with the Partnership for Prevention are very important to health care reform and for stakeholders wrestling to balance cost and quality in a struggling economy," Stephanie Lentz Dougherty, AHIP's Senior Director of Professional Education, said in her invitation to Woolf.

AHIP's Institute is the nation's leading conference for the health insurance industry attended by more than 3,000 health care leaders. The educational content at this year's conference has an emphasis on health care reform.

Disease prevention and health promotion has taken some hits recently on the grounds that it doesn't save money. Health Affairs, the Congressional Budget Office and The Washington Post have all published studies or commentary contending that any savings realized through prevention is offset by the additional expenses incurred when people live longer.

Concerned that prevention could be dismissed as a important part of health reform efforts in Congress, members of the prevention community began pushing back recently. Partnership for Prevention commissioned a white paper from some of the nation's leading authorities on prevention and public health who made the economic case for prevention. One of the authors of that paper, Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, of Virginia Commonwealth University, then summarized that paper in a commentary that appeared in the Feb. 4 issue of JAMA. Partnership and the WellPoint Foundation then held congressional briefings on Capitol Hill on Feb. 4 in which Woolf was joined by Partnership Interim President Corinne G. Husten and Marc Manley, MD, Medical Director and Vice President at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Their conclusions: some preventive measures save money and some don't, but many provide enormous value in terms of health benefits per dollar spent. It is this value - translated into the ability to stem the increase in chronic diseases that are driving health costs upward - that need to be more closely considered as we seek to reform the health care system. And that should apply to medical treatments as well.

The briefing was recorded and can be watched online by clicking the TV set pictured on the right.