What to Expect: National Conference Fellows to Present on Medicaid Issues (Part 1, Sundwall)

Last Updated on April 16, 2022 by Lee Burnett, DO, FAAFP

The National Conferences on Primary Health Care Access are invitational conferences held each April.

The 25th National Conference, to be held at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco on the mornings of April 14th, 15th and 16th, 2014, continues the exploration of the effects of health care reforms (both those reforms occurring legislatively at federal, state or local levels) or those occurring through institutional or private sector initiatives.

There are several unique features of the National Conferences. One is that they are limited to a size – four dozen or so participants – so that there is an opportunity for all participants to interact with each other. There is a deliberate mix of persons from various parts of the health care or health care policy worlds.

Registrants new to the National Conferences are designated as National Conference Scholars after one of the more senior participants. Once a person has joined the National Conferences they receive invitations to all of the subsequent conferences. Since a large number of registrants accept the invitations to later conferences, every conference is mostly comprised of persons who have attended past conferences, several who have participated in 20 or more of the 25.

Virtually all attendees of several conferences have made one or more plenary session presentations on their areas of experience and expertise.Those who attended five or more National Conferences and have made a plenary presentation are inducted as Fellows, those who have attended ten or more National Conferences are inducted as Senior Fellows.

The plenary faculties of each National Conference are comprised of persons who have had distinguished careers in government, academic institutions, and health care delivery system. Because of the continuity of the National Conference plenary faculty membership over the years, participants get unique insights.

[For a previously announced 25th National Conference plenary presentation by National Conference Fellows, see: “What to Expect”: Training the Primary Care Physician in a Time of Health Care System Transformations.]

David Sundwall, MD and national Medicaid policy

Doctor David Sundwall, a Senior Fellow of the National Conferences, was a participant in the very first of the National Conferences (and many times thereafter). He is a faculty member of the University of Utah School of Medicine and is also Vice Chair of a national body that advises Congress on Medicaid and CHIP,. the federally funded children’s health program.

[For a previous report on the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), see Proceedings of the Twenty-Second National Conference: First Day Opening Plenary Session (Part 2, Sundwall).

Dr Sundwall’s background in health care policy includes an impressive array of experiences. He served as a Senate staff member for the standing Senate Committee assigned federal health care policy, whose chair and co-chair were Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Dr Sundwall was appointed head of the Health and Services Administration (HRSA) of the Department of Health and Human Services by President Ronald Reagan. Among his policy initiatives at HRSA were the rejuvenation of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and the creation of the NHSC’s loan repayment for service program. Among the public health issues that arose during his tenure was the expansion of HRSA responses to the AIDS epidemic.

Dr Sundwall was a member of the plenary faculty at the first conference in the series [see First National Conference on Primary Health Care Access (3rd Plenary Panel, Part 1, Sundwall). 

The National Conferences have been fortunate to have Dr Sundwall’s enlightening perspectives on the legislative process and, especially, of the impact of federal Medicaid policy on health care access.

See also: What to Expect: National Conference Fellows to Present on Medicaid Issues (Part 2, Henderson)

For further information, contact [email protected]