Healthcare in the 21st Century: The Role of Competition 

Synopsis

Healthcare is the single largest sector of the economy, it is undergoing extensive and controversial reform, and the central goals of reform – universal coverage and cost control – have not yet been achieved. Since the Affordable Care Act relies heavily on private markets to provide health services and health insurance, competition will play a crucial role in reform. Yet, competition policy issues are especially challenging in healthcare, where markets are distorted by the fee-for-service payment system, insurance coverage, and market power. Competition can help correct these distortions, enhancing access and affordability, but it can also threaten the supply of doctors, new drugs, and higher levels of care. The challenge is to develop policies that achieve the right balance of these goals. The symposium will address many of the key current competition issues in healthcare, including Accountable Care Organizations, acquisitions of physician groups by hospitals, reverse-payment settlements, federal negotiation of drug prices, mergers of insurance companies, off-label uses of prescription drugs, the regulatory environment for the healthcare workforce, and market provision of assisted reproduction technologies. For a complete agenda, please see below.

Lodging

There is a room block for this program at the Silver Cloud-Broadway Hotel, located five bocks from the Law School, at 1100 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122. Please visit their website for information about the hotel and amenities - Silver Cloud-Broadway.

• $239.00/night - Single King
• $249.00/night - Double Queen

To make reservations under this room block, please call 206-325-1400 or 1-800-590-1801.

Give the conference title: Healthcare in the 21st Century: The Role of Competition; and the Group Code: SU-ROC, and ask for the discounted group rate.

Deadline for Room Block Reservations is August 28, 2015

This deadline is absolute, so please make your reservations ASAP.

Register Now! 

Agenda

(agenda is subject to revision)

9:00 am           Welcome

• Annette Clark, Dean and Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law
• John B. Kirkwood, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, and former Assistant Director of Planning and Assistant Director of Evaluation, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission

9:15 am           Accountable Care Organizations and Vertical Acquisitions of Providers

Thomas Greaney, Chester A. Myers Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Health Law Studies, Saint Louis University School of Law and

 Douglas Ross, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine, and Part-Time Lecturer, University of Washington School of Law

Roger Blair, Walter J. Matherly Professor of Economics, University of Florida

Christine Piette Durrance, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and

 D. Daniel Sokol, Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida

Comments:      Douglas A. Conrad, Professor of Health Services, University of Washington

10:45 am         Break

11:00 am         Prescription Drug Issues

Michael Carrier, Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law, Camden 

[Plans to address the role of “large and unjustified” payments in judicial analysis of reverse-payment settlements]

William S. Comanor, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles; Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara; and former Director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission, and

Jack Needleman, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles

“The Law, Economics, and Medicine of Off-Label Prescribing of Pharmaceuticals”

Comments: Hugh Bangasser, Partner, K&L Gates, and Part-Time Lecturer, University of Washington School of Law

 12:30 pm         Break

12:45 pm         Lunch and Keynote Address

William E. Kovacic, Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy, and Director, Competition Law Center, George Washington School of Law, and former Chairman, Federal Trade Commission, writing with

David Hyman, H. Ross & Helen Workman Chair in Law, and Director, Epstein Program in Health Law and Policy, University of Illinois College of Law

2:00 pm           Buyer Power Issues; Distinctive Nature of Healthcare Antitrust

John B. Kirkwood, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law, and former Assistant Director of Planning and Assistant Director of Evaluation, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission

“Buyer Power and Healthcare Prices”

Spencer W. Waller, Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

“How Much of Health Care Antitrust is Really Antitrust?” 

Comments:      Sallie T. Sanford, Associate Professor of Law and Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Services, University of Washington

3:30 pm           Break

3:45 pm           Workforce Regulation; Market for Assisted Reproduction

 

Andrew Gavil, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, and former Director, Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission, and

Tara Isa Koslov, Deputy Director, Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission

“A Flexible Healthcare Workforce Requires a Flexible Regulatory Environment”

June Carbone, Robina Chair in Law, Science and Technology, University of Minnesota Law School, and

Jody Lyneé Madeira, Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington

[Will explore the role of the patient as consumer in the market for assisted reproductive technologies on consumers]

Comments:      Jeffrey M. Sconyers, Senior Lecturer, Graduate Program in Health Services Administration, University of Washington

5:15 pm           Break

7:00 pm           Reception and Dinner