DT | The Affordable Care Act (ACA): Repeal, Replace or Repair -- A Panel Discussion

What would make our health care system work better?  Will the complexity, rhetoric and competing socio-economic interests override the possibility of improvement?  CX has brought together a moderated panel of leading experts to examine:

• High cost of healthcare
• Impact of Medicaid and the uninsured
• Challenges to making the public exchanges and the individual insurance marketplace viable

Heather Rollins, Department Vice President of Individual and Small Group Sales at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), in her current role, oversees all sales and strategic operations for Blue KC’s individual and small group offerings, including Individual under 65, Medicare and Small Group Under 50 plans. In this role she manages Blue KC’s current plan portfolios and guides efforts to retain and grow existing business. Heather has dedicated over a decade of her career to Blue KC. Her previous responsibilities include oversight of the company’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) Individual Sales department and overall implementation of ACA programming at Blue KC.

Tracy Watts is a Senior Partner in Mercer's Washington D.C. office and is Mercer’s U.S. Leader for Health Care Reform.  A consultant with Mercer for 30 years, Tracy specializes in health care cost management, assisting employers in the design, evaluation, and ongoing management of health and group benefit plans for active and retired employees.  As a spokesperson for Mercer on Health Care Reform and also Mercer’s National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans—a survey of approximately 2,000 employers across the US-- she has been quoted in numerous news sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Money Magazine, USA Today, Business Insurance and has appeared live on CNN Financial, Fox News and MSNBC, and in taped interviews on ABC News, Hearst Television, PBS Nightly Business Report, NPR and WTOP News.  She has co-authored several articles on the impact of health care reform on employer sponsored health plans.  Tracy blogs daily on the Mercer U.S. Health News site at www.ushealthnews.mercer.com.

Moderator: 
Tresia Franklin is currently the H.R. Director, Total Rewards and Employee Relations for Hallmark Cards which includes responsibility for Hallmark’s compensation, benefit programs, human resource information systems and employee relations. Tresia currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the American Benefits Council (ABC) and the Employer Advisory Council of NCQA. She has served as a board member of several community healthcare related organizations including a local health services safety net. Tresia previously founded a web-based human resources communication business and also served as a benefits and human resources consultant for Mercer. Earlier in her career, Tresia worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Services Administration Tresia holds the Certified Employee Benefits (CEBS), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designations.