Becker's Hospital Review

Register Today! Becker's Hospital Review CIO and CEO Strategy Roundtables - Nov. 4 and 5, 2014 - Chicago 63 the choice to cancel the policies. Much of the public perceived that the administration had promised insurance companies would not be able to cancel policies. 19. Harry Reid Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is the U.S. Senate Major- ity Leader and an outspoken supporter of the PPA- CA. Sen. Reid was most recently admonished for attacking the political ads against the PPACA, one of which included a cancer patient. In response to Sen. Reid's defense of the PPACA, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the Demo- crats efforts "desperate" and the PPACA "a disaster for the country," in an interview with Fox News. Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell are widely known for their open dislike for one another. Sen. Mc- Connell declared Sen. Reid "has done tremendous damage to the Senate," and has created a "graveyard of good ideas and serious open debate," during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in May. In response to the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby deci- sion, Sen. Reid — like many of his democratic colleagues — vowed to protect the requirement that contraceptive care be covered by private companies regardless of religious views. "We will continue to fight to preserve women's ac- cess to contraceptive coverage and keep bosses out of the examination room," Sen. Reid told the Las Vegas Sun. Sen. Reid has also been very outspoken concern- ing the Republican-backed lawsuit against Presi- dent Obama. Sen. Reid slammed the Republicans, calling them "desperate" for attempting to sue the president over the PPACA and accused them of "[vilifying] the employer provision they them- selves authored." 20. Paul Ryan Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who serves as chairman for the House Budget Committee, has been widely outspoken against the PPACA. Also Mitt Rom- ney's vice-presidential running mate in the 2012 presidential election, Rep. Ryan drafted legislation in 2009 entitled the Patient's Choice Act, which of- fered tax credits and other incentives to the private healthcare industry to create more competition that has become the basis for his healthcare political plat- form. The legislation is expected to characterize his healthcare platform if he runs for higher office. The Republicans' 2015 budget, written by Rep. Ryan, proposes a repeal of the PPACA and broad changes to Medicare and the controversial pro- posal of subsidizing private health insurance for those 55 years old and younger. Vice President Joe Biden responded to the budget proposal saying that it reflects that "they tilted tax code in favor of unearned income over-earned income, [and] inherited wealth over take-home pay." Also, Rep. Ryan expressed his support of the Hob- by Lobby SCOTUS ruling declaring it a "big win for religious freedom." 21. Rick Scott Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) helped co-found Colum- bia Hospital Corporation which merged with the Hospital Corporation of America in 1989 and be- came Columbia/HCA. In 2000, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to pay $840 million in fines in one of the largest fraud cases set- tled in the history of the Justice Department. Al- though Gov. Scott resigned from Columbia/HCA in 1997 and released a statement that he would have stopped the fraud from happening had he known it was going on, the settlement is a rallying point that many of his political opponents still use. He is lauded by his supporters for his strong stance on creating jobs. In the past, Gov. Scott spoke out against President Obama's PPA- CA, asserting that it would kill jobs. Recently, however, he has been accused of dodging ques- tions about the PPACA. In addition to his silence, Gov. Scott is also being criticized for his rejec- tion of federal funding for Medicaid expansion. The White House Council of Economic Advisors released a study titled "Missed Opportunities" that provided a state-by-state analysis of how many jobs would be created by expanding Med- icaid, in which Florida is said to have missed out on 63,800 jobs between 2014 and 2017. 22. Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius was Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2009-2014. Ms. Sebelius announced her resignation after five years in the position, during which President Obama's PPACA rolled out. Her resignation came in the wake of the troubled launch of HealthCare.gov. "Secretary Sebelius was asked to promote something unsteady, poorly structured and unpopular," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to the Washington Post in re- sponse to news of her resignation. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told The New York Times Ms. Sebelius's resignation was "cold comfort to the millions of Americans who were deceived" about what the healthcare law would mean for them and their families. 23. Eric Shinseki Former Army General Eric K. Shinseki is the for- mer Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Shinseki resigned from his post fol- lowing the department's recent scandal in which VA employees attempted to hide months-long wait times facing veterans who sought care. Due to the highly publicized scandal, nearly 25 senators signed a letter calling for his resignation. Many critics of the VA scandal have accused Mr. Shinseki and the rest of the VA leadership of being unable to enforce accountability. During the an- nouncement of Mr. Shinseki's resignation, how- ever, President Obama stressed that Mr. Shinseki was a person of integrity and the VA was over- whelmed by two long wars and ultimately gave way to cheating in order to hide its shortcomings. Other supporters of Mr. Shinseki argue the VA was much worse during the Vietnam era and that the quality of care delivered — once received — is much better today. 24. Peter Shumlin Last year, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-Vermont) signed what many consider to be a revolution- ary bill creating Green Mountain Care — a single payer system in which the state regulates physi- cians' fees and covers Vermonters' medical bills that is set to start by 2017. The plan could po- tentially cut employer-provided insurance plans and made plenty of people unhappy about giv- ing up their satisfactory plans already in place. Gov. Shumlin also unveiled three accountable care organizations that participate in not only the Medicare Shared Savings Program but also have expanded to include Medicaid and commercial insurers. Gov. Shumlin is highly criticized for his lack of transparency, concealing information from the public and essentially violating part of the state's universal healthcare legislation stating that he must disclose the costs of a single-payer and the means by which the state will pay for it. Gov. Shumlin was also recently commended by his supporters for helping to form a shared drug database to battle prescription abuse. He also signed S.295, a bill that addresses pretrial services. The bill aims to connect more people who end up in the criminal justice system with addiction treatment and other services. 25. Andy Stern Andy Stern is the former president of Service Em- ployees International Union serving from 1996 until 2010. Considered by The New York Times as the labor union's most "electrifying" and "polar- izing" leader, Mr. Stern's resignation came after the successful election of President Obama and after his personal and professional goal of a major healthcare overhaul was finally realized. Just months after his resignation, Mr. Stern was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investi- gation and U.S. Labor Department as part of their probe of corruption within SEIU that resulted in a jail sentence for a California union leader. Mr. Stern is now a Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fel- low at New York City-based Columbia University and the director of AmericaWorks. 26. Kent Thiry Kent Thiry is co-chairman and CEO of the kidney care division of Denver-based DaVita HealthCare Partners. Mr. Thiry is known for making his em- ployees sing the DaVita corporate song, "Oh Da- Vita!" and has been criticized for his company's cult-like tendencies. In 2012, DaVita settled a whistle-blower lawsuit paying $55 million for fraud claims. The case came from a Texas lawsuit that accused DaVita of overusing Epogen, an anemia drug which had high costs and risks that helped change how the government paid for kidney care. Furthermore, at the beginning of 2014, DaVita agreed to pay $389 million to settle federal in- vestigations into some of the company's relation- ships with nephrologists. Despite the lawsuits, DaVita has been recog- nized as a Top Workplace according to the Bay Area News Group for the second year in a row. n

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