Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus is one of only five United States senators posting a daily schedule on their official web site. (See Baucus’ schedule here.) Baucus’ schedule lists numerous meetings with health care industry executives, lobbyists and union officials with a stake in the health care reform debate. The schedule shows meetings with health industry groups make up the plurality of the senator’s listed meetings that relate to health care, sharply ahead of pro-reform non-profits and labor organizations. Health industry groups were involved in 20 of the 55 meetings Baucus lists that relate to health reform discussions involving individuals or organizations outside of Congress. This is compared to 12 for pro-reform and labor organizations.

The list of attendees at meetings in Baucus’ office reads like a who’s who of the health care heavy hitters. Among those attending meetings with the senator were PhRMA President & CEO Billy Tauzin, Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer, Aetna CEO Ron Williams, Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly, Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, Abbott Laboratories Chairman & CEO Miles White, AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan, GlaxoKlineSmith CEO Andrew Witty and Blue Cross Blue Shield President & CEO Scott Serota. These executives represent key industry groups that are opposed to many provisions in the currently offered health reform bills in Congress.

The organizations run by the attendees are also large contributors to the Max Baucus’ reelection campaigns. All of the above mentioned organizations contributed at least $10,000 to Baucus’ last run for reelection in 2008. Leading the pack is Amgen, having contributed $70,750 to Baucus’ 2008 campaign. Close behind is Blue Cross Blue Shield with $62,350 in campaign contributions to the senator’s campaign. Blue Cross Blue Shield President & CEO Scott Serota and Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer were the only health industry executives to receive more than one meeting with the senator.

Some of these organizations currently employ former Baucus staffers as lobbyists. David Castagnetti, formerly Baucus’ chief of staff, lobbies on behalf of Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, General Electric Health Care, and PhRMA; Scott Olsen lobbies for Amgen, as does another former chief of staff, Jeff Forbes; Forbes also lobbies for PhRMA. There are no meetings disclosed in Baucus’ schedule that include any of his former staffers turned lobbyists. The connections these former staffers have with Baucus’ office may have aided in getting the corporate executives into the door.

Baucus also held a number of meetings, albeit fewer than with corporate interests, with labor organizations and non-profits supportive of reform efforts. These organizations include the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and Doctors for America. Unlike the corporate attendees to Baucus’ meetings these organizations did not provide substantial campaign contributions to the senator’s campaigns. The two labor organizations, AFL-CIO and SEIU, combined to contribute only $15,000 to Baucus’ 2008 campaign war chest.

Sen. Baucus began posting his daily schedule in September 2007. None of this information would be available if Sen. Baucus had not made the decision to make his schedule available to the public, a personally brave decision in favor of greater transparency. While it took the pressure of a lawsuit to get the White House to release their health care visitor logs, Sen. Baucus’ has made the decision to run his office in a transparent manner. If only all congressional offices provided this level of transparency. While this schedule is in no way official or authoritative, and may not include meetings that Sen. Baucus does not wish to reveal, it provides a unique view into the meetings of one of the most influential members of Congress involved in the debate over health care.