QUESTION
With COVID-19 and its variants expected to remain a factor in our efforts to reNew Jersey, what can we expect of the pandemic in 2022 and what new ways can we look at providing and controlling healthcare costs for businesses?
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Assist hospitals and other health care settings with the skyrocketing costs of nursing and clinical staff.
- Promote telemedicine, telebehavioral health and teledentistry to provide easy health care access.
- Continue to break down barriers that health care facilities face when they expand or innovate.
- Reduce non-medical emergency room visits by addressing social determinants, such as homelessness, food insecurity and mental health.
- Employers must take a leadership role in employee health through corporate wellness programs that encourage screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, colonoscopy, etc.
- Employers should continue to work with government in promoting vaccines to prevent another pandemic.
PANELISTS
- Michael Symons (moderator), Statehouse Bureau Chief, Townsquare Media/NJ 101.5 News
- John Fuller, Director, Government Affairs, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ
- Wendy Lazarus, Interim Vice President of Government Affairs, BioNJ
- Lisa Morina, Vice President of Government & External Relations, Jefferson Health New Jersey
- Linda Schwimmer, President & CEO, New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute
- Dennis Wilson, President & CEO, Delta Dental of New Jersey