2024 NMA Annual Meeting

The Doctor Can’t See You Now – Improving Primary Care Access
Chris Koller, President, Milbank Memorial Fund

1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ pending

Why is access to high-quality primary care diminishing in the US? How does the situation in Nebraska compare? What can be done about it and how can individual clinicians and medical associations make a difference? Christopher Koller will bring a national perspective to the important challenges we face in Nebraska and talk about solutions that can be pursued. Attendees will leave with a better sense of the scope of the problem nationally and in Nebraska, its causes and consequences, and what they can do to address it.

Christopher F. Koller is President of the Milbank Memorial Fund and Publisher of the Milbank Quarterly. The Fund is a more than 100-year-old operating foundation that improves population health and health equity by connecting leaders with evidence and sound experience. Before joining the Fund in 2013, he served the state of Rhode Island for eight years as the country’s first health insurance commissioner. Prior to that, he was CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. He has served on four National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine report committees and serves in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities. Mr. Koller is also a professor of practice in the School of Public Health at Brown University.

9:30-10:00 AM

11:30-12:00 PM

1:15-1:45 PM  

Eric Zacharias, MD has practiced internal medicine for 25 years and has held key leadership roles in healthcare settings, including Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Director of Patient Safety at Boulder Medical Center, Board Chair of Boulder Valley Care Network Clinically Integrated Network, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Zacharias currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of COPIC Insurance Company. He has worked in patient safety and risk management throughout his medical career including leading efforts for large, multi-specialty groups, a state-wide consortium of medical groups, and large community health systems. Dr. Zacharias has presented on patient safety around the country and authored articles for national journals, newsletters, and hosts a podcast at COPIC, Within Normal Limits. Dr. Zacharias is board-certified in internal medicine, earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is also the author of The Mediterranean Diet: A Clinician’s Guide for Patient Care.

3:15-3:30 PM