ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) - The chief executive of the Mayo Clinic is scheduled to speak tomorrow at an event tied to the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Dr. Denis Cortese will speak at the 2008 Rocky Mountain Roundtable on Health, Wellness and Prevention. It's an event billed as "one of a series of 10 issue-oriented, nonpartisan roundtables."

The roundtable will highlight Democrats' desire to fix the nation's health-care payment system. Officials from the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center have made it clear that they want a seat at the fixing-health-care table when a new U.S. president takes office.

Cortese will argue that the nation should pay most for safe, low-cost, high-quality care instead of paying the highest amounts to health providers who simply order the most tests.