President Obama’s new chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Dr. Donald Berwick, addressed a packed crowd Nov. 5 at Lydia Mendelssohn Theater in his first public presentation outside of Washington since assuming the post four months ago.

As CMS administrator, Berwick oversees the Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program, which together provide care to nearly one in three Americans. The CMS also is responsible for implementing approximately 70 percent of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, signed into law in March.

Berwick was the keynote speaker at the Reaching Excellence in Health Management and Policy symposium, which focused on how high-performing health care organizations achieve results today and position themselves for the management and policy requirements of the future. The symposium was capped off by John Griffith, Andrew Pattullo Professor of Hospital Administration and professor of health management and policy, who was to deliver his last lecture before retirement. Griffith has been with the School of Public Health for more than 50 years, and is an expert in health care management and graduate health management education.

Berwick told the audience that his interest in medicine stemmed from growing up watching his father work as a small town doctor. Berwick said his father today would be “angry” at many aspects of health care delivery and would, on one level, probably just wish to be “left alone” to treat patients.

Despite the passage of Obama’s health care reform, Berwick said the question remains: “Will we change health care in America or not?” He said that change is possible, but only through public and private partnerships to overhaul the entire system, rather than working separately to fix the broken parts.

Berwick sees CMS playing a large role. “CMS should be a major force and partner for the continual improvement for health and health care for all Americans,” he said, stressing he doesn’t mean just those who receive Medicare or Medicaid.

His vision for improving health care is summed up in the triple-aim philosophy: care, health and cost. By the triple aim Berwick means improving the care of people, improving the health of the population by fighting conditions like obesity and environmental factors that negatively impact health, such as smoking, and lowering the cost of health care.

Berwick said he doesn’t expect the turnover of power to Republicans in the House during last week’s elections to negatively impact his plans or efforts to implement CMS’ portions of the health reform law.

The symposium was organized by the Griffith Leadership Center in Health Management and Policy, which is named after Griffith.