Eric Burlison knows what he wants in health care policy for the state of Missouri, and he’s going after it.
As a trusted member of the Missouri House of Representatives, Burlison brings his experience as a CoxHealth business analyst to legislative matters in Jefferson City. In particular, the 34-year-old is leading Missouri’s charge toward a health care compact that would allow state law to trump federal health care reforms. A key point in Burlison’s proposal aims to overturn the federal health insurance mandate.
His efforts are gaining traction as the health care compact, House Bill 423, passed 105-52 on March 31, and the Senate version passed 31-3 on April 27.
“I am sponsoring many bills that bring sanity and clarity to an overly regulated and highly inefficient industry,” says the Republican, who represents southwest Springfield. “Impending changes in health care laws have challenged us to contact leaders in other states to work together for the best solutions.”
Burlison, who began his second term this session, holds the ranking positions of vice chairman of the House’s health insurance committee, chairman of the legislative sportsman’s caucus and vice chairman of professional registration and licensing. He also serves on budget, education, urban affairs and renewable energy committees.
“The time I’ve spent working at the state capital has been the richest learning experience of my life,” says Burlison, who has worked at CoxHealth since 2002, coming on board as a programmer with a master’s in business from Missouri State University before moving to an analyst position.
On CoxHealth’s programming team, Burlison and colleagues created an award-winning Web-based doctor-patient communications portal. CoxHealth has received GE’s national Innovator of the Year for developing Patient Express, which allows roughly 13,000 registered patients to make real-time online appointments, receive lab test results, request prescription renewals and health journals, and provide home-test results such as blood glucose levels to their doctors.
“GE came to CoxHealth to sell its product to us and discovered that we had developed a product that the company considered to be superior to anything sold on the market to date,” Burlison says.
A volunteer at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks, Burlison was named Big Brother of the Year in 2005. “I am very proud of that award. It hangs in my office in Jefferson City today,” Burlison says.
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