Jeffrey C. (Jeff) Bauer, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized health futurist and medical economist.  He is a Chicago-based partner in the management consulting practice of ACS Healthcare Solutions (Dearborn, MI), a leading provider of outsourcing, information technology, and strategic business solutions to the health care industry.  In his numerous publications and presentations, he forecasts the future of health care and describes practical, creative approaches to improving the delivery system.

Dr. Bauer has published more than 150 articles, books, Web pages, and videos on health care delivery.  He speaks frequently to national audiences about key trends in health care, medical science, technology, information systems, reimbursement, public policy, health reform, and creative problem-solving.  Dr. Bauer is quoted often in the national press and writes regularly for professional journals that cover the business of health care.

His latest book is Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care: How Efficiency, Effectiveness, and E-Transformation Can Conquer Waste and Optimize Quality (Productivity Press, 2008). His three previous books are Telemedicine and the Reinvention of Health Care: The Seventh Revolution in Medicine (McGraw-Hill, 1999), Not What the Doctor Ordered (McGraw-Hill, 1998) and Statistical Analysis for Health Care Decision-Makers (McGraw-Hill, 1996).  He is updating the book on statistical analysis and beginning a new book on forecasting techniques and managing uncertainty.  

As a consultant, he assists health care provider organizations with leadership education, strategic planning and visioning, technology assessment, and service line transformation.  He has recently facilitated an expert task force on the future of selected specialties for one of the nation’s largest medical associations, managed technology assessment for a 28-hospital health system, analyzed performance of selected clinical service lines, and developed strategic plans for hospitals and professional associations.

Dr. Bauer was a full-time teacher and administrator at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver (1973-1984).  He held full-time academic appointments as Associate Professor in the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and administrative appointment as Assistant Chancellor for Planning and Program Development.  He served concurrently as Health Policy Adviser to Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm (1980-1984).  He also worked as a visiting clinical professor in the Administrative Medicine Program at the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1992-1997), where he taught physician executives how to evaluate research reports and other published studies.  Additionally, Dr. Bauer was a Senior Fellow at the Center for the New West in Denver (1992-2001).  His previous consulting firm, The Bauer Group, Inc., specialized in consumer-focused strategic planning for developing clinical affiliation agreements and multi-hospital networks (1984-1992).

He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado-Boulder.  He graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a B.A. in economics and completed a certificate in political studies at the University of Paris (France).  During his academic career, he was a Boettcher Scholar, a Ford Foundation Independent Scholar, a Fulbright Scholar (Switzerland), and a Kellogg Foundation National Fellow. 

MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
Forecasting the Future of Health Care
Challenges and Opportunities
One of the country’s most respected health futurists, Dr. Bauer presents an informative and entertaining analysis of the forces that define possibilities for medical care.  He explains different methods for looking ahead and forecasts the future based on his in-depth analysis of the key trends—medical science, technology, demography and epidemiology, reimbursement, and organization of the delivery system.  Implications of key trends and practical responses are presented with respect to the audience’s special interests.  This presentation is continually updated to reflect the latest changes in forces that shape the future.

The Reality of Health Reform
What Politicians Aren’t Telling Us
Health reform may be the hottest domestic topic in this pivotal election year, but the gap between politicians’ rhetoric and reality is enormous.  As a well-informed and neutral observer of the ongoing battle over health reform, Dr. Bauer describes the basic aspects of opposing plans and evaluates them from the perspective of key goals of a health care system.  By comparing likely outcomes with the goals of public policy, he identifies the steps that would need to be taken to produce true value for health care spending.  Participants will have a solid understanding of the fundamental issues of health reform and the ability to help redirect the political dialogue toward realistic outcomes. 

Paradox and Imperatives in Health Care
Efficiency, Effectiveness, and E-Transformation
This presentation summarizes the key points of Dr. Bauer’s challenging new (2008) book by the same title.  He shows why unprecedented financial circumstances threaten failure for health care providers that pursue “business as usual.”  Dr. Bauer clearly explains how sound economic principles and proven management tools can prevent inevitable failures if significant changes are not made.  The presentation reveals how providers can draw upon internal resources to increase net revenue and provide the quality of care that payers and consumers are demanding at prices they are willing to pay.  It shows why waste must be eliminated and how future-focused leaders can put their organizations on a positive path while redirection is still possible.  It is an inspiring speech about how providers can do it right all the time, as inexpensively as possible.