2022 Plenary Sessions and Speakers

Improving Health Equity, Opportunity and Care for Black Men and Boys

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 | 9:20 AM

The Confess Project of America is an inspiring model of how to bring the mental health conversation closer to where people live, through trusted community partners. Founded by Lorenzo Lewis, Confess is a mental health barbershop movement that is turning barbers into mental health advocates. A facilitated discussion will explore ways to: center on Black men and boys, address long-standing health inequities, and leverage Medicaid’s outsized role in covering behavioral health services.

Moderator: Lynnette Rhodes, Executive Director, Medical Assistants Plan, Georgia Department of Community Health

Speaker: Lorenzo P. Lewis, Founder, The Confess Project of America

CMS' Priorities for 2023: A Message from the Administrator

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 | 1:15 PM

Invited speaker and CMS Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, will highlight the direction of the agency for the coming year. A panel of Medicaid leaders will follow up her insights with their reactions on what CMS’ objectives mean for the states.

Invited Speaker: Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

What's on Tap from CMCS

 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 | 4:00 PM

CMCS Director, Dan Tsai, will outline the activities and initiatives to expect for Medicaid and CHIP over the next year.

Speaker: Dan Tsai, Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services

Meaningful Partnerships: What We Know, and Wish We Knew

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 | 4:20 PM

The state-federal partnership is critical to a strong Medicaid program and necessary to execute on shared priorities. What does it take to make this partnership work? How has it evolved over the years – and what will it look like going forward? CMCS Director, Dan Tsai, will join his former Medicaid Director peers to explore these questions in this conversation.

Speaker: Dan Tsai, Director, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services
Additional Speakers: TBA

What the Health? Health Care Journalists Look Past Pandemic

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 | 9:00 AM

What the health is going on? We’ve got questions.  Julie Rovner convenes a panel of leading health reporters from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Kaiser Health News to discuss federal health policy and how it reverberates across the states.  Their discussion will help discern trends in health care post mid-terms and post-pandemic with a particular eye to impacts on the Medicaid program.

    Panelists:

    Stephanie Armour, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

    Sarah Kliff, Investigative Reporter, The New York Times

    Rachana Pradhan, Correspondent, Kaiser Health News

    Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent, Kaiser Health News

    Healing: Building a Better System for Mental Health

    WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 | 12:30 PM

    Medicaid is the largest payer of behavioral health services in the nation. In spite of high costs, outcomes for people with serious mental illness remain dire with high rates of incarceration, homelessness, and medical morbidity. Dr. Insel brings expertise in psychiatry, policy, and technology to suggest how we can better meet the needs of people with serious mental illness. This talk will suggest that we need to shift towards a goal of recovery, by focusing on the “three Ps” – people, place and purpose. Healing requires that the three Ps become part of health care, supported by both public and private insurance. A limited number of copies of Dr. Insel’s book, Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, will be made available for both in-person and virtual conference attendees.

    Moderator: Jaime “Jim” L. Diaz-Granados, PhD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, American Psychological Association

    Speaker: Tom Insel, MD, Former Director, National Institute of Mental Health