21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access April 12-15, 2010 in Kaua'i
Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Lee Burnett, DO, FAAFP
The Twenty-First of the National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access will be held on the April 12 through 15, 2010 (concluding at noon on the 15th) at the Grand Hyatt Kaua’i, in Koloa, Kaua’i, Hawai’i. The theme of the conference is “Consequences”.
[Take a tour of each of the four days of the National Conference plenary program. A post for each conference day, and links to relative webpages on this site, precede this post. Tour Day One at 21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access – First Conference Day (April 12, 2010). Tour Day Two at 21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access – Second Conference Day (April 13, 2010). Tour Day Three at 21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access – Third Conference Day (April 14, 2010). Tour Day Four at 21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access – Fourth Conference Day (April 15, 2010).]
CME prescribed units will be awarded. (For the CME awards of each of the previous National Conferences, see: CME Prescribed Credits for National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access.)
The Twenty-first National Conference’s “consequences” theme is especially relevant to the debates that surrounded the enactment of federal health care insurance reform. Despite the political rhetoric heard during the past year, the existing American health care system is the product of myriad federal, state and local subsidies and mandates. It is now certain that the legislation will impact most of the existing system in consequential ways.
The political debate obscured the reality of how the current system actually works. The first two panels of Day One will be asked the question, “What are the likely consequences of the enactment of federal legislation to change the health care system?”
[Note: hear the podcast of a presentation made by Doctor Philip Lee, President Lyndon Johnson’s highest rank health official on the development of Medicare and Medicaid at Podcast: Doctor Philip Lee discussing the unintended consequences of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid]
Panel One: the Consequences of the Federal Health Care Reform Legislation – Overview

The first panel will address the elements contained in the final form of the legislation signed by President Obama, and the issues that relate to its implementation. (For a discussion of the roundtable, see the article, at: Josh Freeman, Perry Pugno, Enrique Fernandez to Lead Off 21st National Conference on Primary Health Care Access With “What Just Happened?” Roundtable.
Panel Two: the Consequences of the Federal Health Care Reform Legislation – Impact on the Primary Health Care Workforce
The second panel will address the issues of our “physician workforce” in light of proposed legislative changes.
Doctor Donald Frey of the Creighton University School of Medicine will moderate the second panel, which will include Doctor James Herman of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Doctor Thomas Hines from Boston University. Doctor Hines will discuss the impact of the recent Massachusetts experience with health care reform mandated at a state level.
For a description of the second plenary session, see: 21st National Conference Plenary: Health Reform Legislation Consequences for the Nation’s Primary Care Physicians
[Below: a view of the grounds of the Grand Hyatt Kaua’i.]
Meanwhile, the Coastal Research Group website will reprise many of the past presentations at its National Conferences Each day of the National Conference will be devoted to looking at the consequences of the quest for health care reform on the American commonwealth.
Monday, April 12, 2010: The 21st National Conference will be convened by Doctor James C. Herman of Penn State University’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. After his introductions the three plenary panels described above will take place.
A Lesson in History: the Consequences of the Flexner Report of 1910
Observing the 100th anniversary of the Flexner Report that had a transformative effect on American medical education, the National Conference will analyze how changes in national policy can have unexpected consequences whose impact can be seen a century later.
Tuesday through Thursday, April 13-15, 2010: The Consequences of Strategic Interventions for Rural, Low Income and Vulnerable Populations and for Community-Based Medical Education (Part One).

The second day will begin withthe third major plenary overview of the health reform proposals. That plenary will address the nation’s public health needs (see 21st National Conference Focus on Nation’s Public Health System: What Happens Now?)
Dean Richard Clover of the University of Louisville School of Public Health will be joined by Doctors Marc Babitz of the Utah Department of Health and Charles Q. North of the University of New Mexico.
Over the several days of the National Conference, initiatives for decentralizing medical education in the states of California Hawai’i, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Kentucky and Louisiana will be analyzed. These will begin with a presentation by Dean Daniel Webster of Michigan State University’s Traverse City campus, described at: The 21st National Conference’s “Consequences” Theme: Strategic Interventions in the State of Michigan.
In addition, we will discuss initiatives to create Educational Health Centers within community health centers and other federally qualified health centers (see the accompanying forum by Doctor Kevin Murray of Tacoma General Hospital on this website’s frontpage and the description of cross-cultural, linguistic curriculum at University of California Irvine).
Subsequent National Conference plenary sessions will continue the discussions of these initiatives, and, in addition, will have the first presentation on impact of Caribbean medical schools on the nation’s supply of primary care physicians, that discusses the multiple campuses and educational activities of that institution.
The fourth day (April 15) will include a celebration of the four decades since its founding of the American Board of Family Medicine, which pioneered and implemented the concept of ongoing certification of primary care physicians.
The fourth day will also observe the 20 G. Gayle Stephens Lectures, with a panel including previous presenter of the National Conference’s Stephens, Odegaard and Rodos Lectures.
In recognition of the lively Armageddon metaphor that Doctor Stephens has used to describe the battle of Medicare and Medicaid and of Doctor Patrick Dowling’s Fifteenth Stephens Lecture (see The Fifteenth G. Gayle Stephens Lecture – Patrick Dowling, MD) which updated the Armageddon theme to comprise the fight for universal health care in the United States, a panel, entitled “Skirmishes at the Armageddon Battlefield: Correspondent Reports on Health Care Reform Initiatives” will take place in the final hours of the National Conference.
This webpage, to be continuously updated, will be the source of the latest information on the 21st National Conference
Conference invitees will be able to secure up to four additional days before and/or after at the Grand Hyatt Kaua’i at the advantageous National Conference rate. Registration will INCLUDE four nights accommodations at the Grand Hyatt, and will be based on the category of room each registrant selects. Although registration fees and payments for extra nights are non-refundable, full credit towards future National Conferences will be given if circumstances require withdrawal from the National Conference and the Coastal Research Group is notified by April 7, 2010.
[Below: a view of the one of the Grand Hyatt pools.]
21st National Conference Faculty (confirmed as of April 1, 2010)
Marc E. Babitz, MD, Utah State Department of Health, Salt Lake City
Macaran Baird, MD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Lee A. Burnett, DO, www.studentdoctor.net, Southern Pines, North Carolina
William H. Burnett, MD, Coastal Research Group, Granite Bay, California
Baretta Casey, MD, University of Kentucky, Lexington
Richard Clover, MD, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, Louisville, Kentucky
Mary Coleman, MD, Ross University, Dominica, West Indies
Ana Eastman, MD, Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, Whittier, California
Delight Erickson, FNP, MPH, Memorial Hospital, Los Banos, California
Enrique Fernandez, MD, Ross University, Miami, Florida
Richard Flinders, MD, Santa Rosa Family Medicine, Santa Rosa, California
Virginia Fowkes, MHS, Stanford University, Stanford, California
Joshua Freeman, MD, Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas
Donald Frey, MD, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska
Jimmy Hara, MD, Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles, California
James C. Herman, MD, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Thomas Hines, MD, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
Allen Hixon, MD, University of Hawai’i, Mililani
Robert Maudlin, University of Washington, Tacoma Family Medicine
Charles Q. North, MD, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Jamie Osborn, MD, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California
Neal Palafox, MD, University of Hawai’i, Mililani
Anna Peck, studentdoctor.net, Iowa City, Iowa
James C. Puffer, MD, American Board of Family Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky
Perry A. Pugno, MD, MPH, American Academy of Family Physicians, Leawood, Kansas
Robert Ross, MD, Cascades East Family Medicine, Klamath Falls, Oregon
Warwick Troy, Ph.D., Shueman-Troy Associates, Pasadena, California
Laura Turner, MD studentdoctor.net, Southern Pines, North Carolina
Charles Vega, MD, University of California, Irvine
Daniel Webster, MD, Michigan State University/Munson Healthcare , Traverse City, Michigan
Allan Wilke, MD, Ross University, Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas