Balkinization: Implementing the Affordable Care Act: What Role for Accountable Care Organizations?

Implementing the Affordable Care Act: What Role for Accountable Care Organizations?

Frank Pasquale

As Kevin Outterson has noted, even if the individual mandate is ultimately declared unconstitutional, the rest of health care reform is very likely to survive judicial challenge. Political plans to defund critical aspects of US health finance are likely a bigger threat to the success of the ACA than the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, even if the mandate is struck down, and those defunding decisions are made, there will still be some lasting legacies of health reform. One of them--innovation in the health care delivery system--will be the subject of Seton Hall Law Review's annual symposium conference. We have a stellar lineup of attorneys, academics, and physicians to address the thorny legal issues raised by Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a critical feature of the ACA designed to improve quality and reduce waste.

We will also feature empirical legal scholarship on the implementation of ACOs, presented by speakers from across the country. The luncheon keynote speaker will be Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, founder of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. Dr. Brenner was featured by Atul Gawande in a New Yorker story that applauded his tireless work to improve the quality of care for disadvantaged individuals in South New Jersey. Brenner has demonstrated that a rational health care system can "lower medical costs by giving the neediest patients better care."

Scheduled panels include:

Introduction to Accountable Care Organizations

Jorge Lopez (Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP): Promise and Pitfalls: Health Reform's Medicare ACO Shared Savings Program

Hal Teitelbaum (CEO and Managing Partner, Crystal Run Healthcare): The Prospect of Being Hanged: Focusing the Physician Mind on ACOs

Michael Kalison (Chairman of Applied Medical Software, Inc.; Of Counsel, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney, & Carpenter): The Lessons of Gainsharing

ACOs in Theory: Issues Raised by Integrated Delivery

Jessica Mantel (Co-Director, Health Law & Policy Institute, University of Houston, Law Center): ACOs and the Decline of Physician Autonomy

Priscilla Keith (Adjunct Professor and Director of Research and Projects, Hall Center for Law and Health, Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis): The Impact of Accountable Care Organizations on Public Health

Tara Ragone (Research Fellow, Seton Hall Law School): The Role of Competition in Integrated Delivery: ACOs, Federal and State Antitrust Law, and the State Action Doctrine

Keynote

Jeffrey Brenner, M.D., Founder & Executive Director, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers

Jeffrey Brenner is a family physician and has practiced in Camden for eleven years as a front-line primary care provider for patients of all ages. Having owned a private practice in Camden, he has experience in implementing electronic health records and running a paperless office, open-access scheduling, as well as first-hand knowledge of the various challenges facing primary care in the current health system.

He currently serves full-time as the Coalition's Executive Director, where he spends much of his time meeting with stakeholders and policymakers, advocating for the models of care the Coalition has developed and demonstrated through data centric results. Jeff is a faculty member of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden and is also a former resident of Camden, having lived in the city for over 8 years. He is a graduate of Vassar College and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

ACOs in Practice: Research on Current Implementation of ACOs

Louise Trubek (Clinical Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School), Barbara Zabawa (Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, S.C); Felice Borisy-Rudin (University of Wisconsin Law School): Accountable care organizations in two states: A preliminary analysis

Sallie Sanford (Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington - School of Law & School of Public Health): State-based ACO and Medical Home Pilots: Early Lessons from the Other Washington

John Jacobi (Faculty Director & Dorothea Dix Professor of Health Law & Policy, Seton Hall University School of Law), Lessons from ACO Implementation in New Jersey.

Thomas Greaney (Chester A. Myers Professor of Law and Director, Center for Health Law Studies, Saint Louis University School of Law), Accountable Care Organizations: A New New Thing with Some Old Problems.

The event will take place at Seton Hall Law School with luncheon served at The Newark Club, One Newark Center, 22nd floor. There is no charge for Seton Hall Law alumni; cost for all others, $25. Four NJ/NY CLE credits will be available.

Visit http://law.shu.edu/lawreviewsymposium to register. For more information regarding the Symposium, please contact Gianna Cricco-Lizza, Symposium Editor, at gianna.criccolizza@student.shu.edu.

Posted 12:08 AM by Frank Pasquale [link]