KEYSTONE — With parts of America's health care system seemingly on life support or awash in uncertainty, it made for a rapt audience this week at the 29th annual Colorado Health Symposium being held at the Keystone Conference Center. Participants piled into the main conference room well before 8 a.m. Thursday — those without chairs had to stand against the walls. Laptops were open, eyes were glued on the speakers as participants appeared serious about learning all they can to improve America's somewhat broken health care system.

Colorado Health Foundation spokesman Chuck Reyman said Wednesday attendees were just as dedicated. They participated in the symposium from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and for many there was only standing room.

An important year for health care

With numerous questions about how health care reform will be enacted, such as — how will it affect consumers, businesses and care providers, how will it be financed and who determines how success will be measured — Reyman said this year's symposium is particularly important.

“The whole issue of health care reform has been distorted and politicized,” Reyman said. “Convening like this cuts through the politics.”

Reyman also said symposium participants are working to come up with ways to provide true value and quality within today's health care system.

An Oxford-style debate held Wednesday evening was particularly successful, Reyman said. It featured prominent speakers on the federal government's role in health care reform, and it presented diverse points of view. Reyman noted that all sides were presented, on topics ranging from the constitutionality of the new legislation to who would actually provide care if access increased.

“Real learning and real understanding occurred,” Reyman said. “It was a robust discussion.”

Other Wednesday discussions surrounded preventative care —e ncouraging people to adopt healthy habits, and whether basic preventative care cuts costs for the medical industry as a whole.

“It's undisputed that healthy people are less expensive than people with illness and disease,” said Peter Neumann, the director of the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts Medical Center. “Whether a preventive program saves money is another question: It may save money, it may not save money.”

And Wednesday's morning presentations all spoke to one question — the health care delivery system is broken, so how do we fix it? Though it appeared there wasn't any one good answer, speakers all threw out possible solutions. One man said care should be patient-centered, rather than focused on creating “billable events.” Another said medical leaders should study other industries, outside of health care, to come up with a solution.

Forty-four speakers are also covering a plethora of topics— from preventative care and the current fee-for-service system to the health care debate and new legislation. For more information on news updates, speaker resources and background information can be found at www.coloradohealth.org.

Live presentations will be given from the symposium on Ustream.tv under http://bit.ly/cWCUoX.

SDN reporter Caitlin Row can be reached at (970) 668-4633 or at crow@summitdaily.com.