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The annual Indiana Health Law Review Symposium will examine the topic “Ideology Meets Reality: What Works and What Doesn’t Work in Health Policy.” The event will take place October 21 in the Inlow Hall Wynne Courtroom and atrium.

The event comes at a crucial time as the nation faces a variety of critical health concerns, says Professor David Orentlicher, co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney and one of the organizers of the event. “In the past, elected officials often have adopted policies that exacerbate rather than solve serious health problems,” Professor Orentlicher said. “In large part, this has happened because policy is driven by ideology rather than science. In this symposium, our speakers will discuss which policies work and which don't work for key issues in health, including health threats such as the Zika virus, abuse of prescription drugs such as Oxycodone, and the challenge of ensuring universal access to affordable health care.”

Professor James G. Hodge, Jr., will discuss the topic “From [A]thrax to [Z]ika: Key Lessons in Public Health Legal Preparedness. He is a Professor of Public Health Law and Ethics, Director of the Public Health Law and Policy Program, and Director of the Western Region of the Network for Public Health Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Commentor for this first session of the day will be Chad Priest, Regional Chief Executive Officer of the Indiana Region for the American Red Cross.

“Ideology Meets Reality: What Works and What Doesn’t in Patient Cost Sharing” will be the topic under discussion during the second session. Professor Christopher Robertson, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law will be the speaker, and Professor Anne Royalty, Director of IUPUI’s Center for Health Economics Research will be the commentor.

Two experts will lead the discussion during the third session’s topic: “Measuring the New Health Care Federalism.” Professor Abbe R. Gluck, Faculty Director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School; and Professor Nicole Huberfield, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at the University of Kentucky College of Law, are the discussants for this topic. Professor Diana R.H. Winters of IU McKinney will be the commentor.

Professor Kosali Simon of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU in Bloomington will deliver the luncheon address. Her topic will be “The Affordable Care Act: What are Its Aims and How Do We Assess Whether They Are Met?”

Professor Leo Beletsky of Northeastern University School of Law and Bouve College of Health Sciences will talk about “Patient Surveillance and the Public’s Health: Revisiting the Law of Unintended Consequences in the Age of the Opioid Crisis.” The commentor for this discussion will be Professor Ross Silverman of the IU Fairbanks School of Public Health. Professor Silverman also has a secondary appointment at IU McKinney as a professor of public health and law.

The program concludes with a discussion of “Conflicts of Interest in the New Era of Sunshine: What We Know and What We Still Need to Know.” This talk will be presented by Professor Richard S. Saver. He is the Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Professor Saver also has a secondary appointment in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Commentor for this session will be Professor Paul Helft of the IU School of Medicine. A professor of hematology/oncology, he is also director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics.

“The event allows students to engage with distinguished faculty on current health law issues, said Indiana Health Law Review Editor-in-Chief Tyler Lemen, a 3L at IU McKinney. “The topic of this year's symposium should provide attendees with scholarly views on health policy at a time when national opinions are shifting.”

“The Indiana Health Law Review Symposium provides an ideal venue for exploration of the complex fields of health law and policy,” said Amy Elson, Assistant Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney. “It allows us to connect leading scholars with the students and faculty of the IU McKinney School of Law, students and faculty from the IUPUI campus, and attorneys from Indianapolis’ vibrant health and life sciences sectors. We look forward to bringing this educational opportunity to the members of our campus and our community.”

There is a fee to attend this event. There are 5.0 hours of CLE available with a registration. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m., with the program getting underway at 8:45 a.m. The event concludes at 3:45 p.m.