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At a news conference on March 21^st at the Indiana Statehouse, Mitch Roob, Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, announced the formation of a workgroup of experts from Indiana University that will study potential reforms in healthcare delivery in Indiana.

The workgroup is co-chaired by Professors Eleanor DeArman Kinney, Co-Director, Hall Center for Law and Health, IU School of Law-Indianapolis, and Eric Wright , Director, Center for Health Policy, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs . Several staff from the Center for Health Policy and the Hall Center for Law and Health will also work full time on the project.

“Unless we address the issue of healthcare delivery, Indiana and every other state in the United States is going to face a healthcare crisis,” said Roob. “The purpose of this workgroup is to put experts from different fields in one room to come up with recommendations for the Governor and the Indiana General Assembly. The time is now to build a consensus on where we need to go, and how we can get there. If we fail to address this problem now, our children and grandchildren will pay the price of our negligence.”

The workgroup includes representatives from the schools of medicine, law, and public and environmental affairs. The workgroup’s primary product will be a public report outlining alternative strategies to address the future of healthcare delivery in Indiana. The report will include estimates of the costs and associated consequences.

“We cannot maintain the status quo,” Roob said. “We ask hospitals to do three things: offer high quality care, at low cost, and cost shift. This method of operation is putting a strain on our delivery system that will eventually lead to its collapse.”

Kinney, co-chair, said, “We at the Hall Center for Law and Health are delighted to play this important part in health reform in Indiana. We will be focusing our work on legal and regulatory barriers to health care and how Indiana might improve public health measure to promote health and reduce health care costs. We are also working with Indiana University Center for Bioethics on articulating the underlying values and ethics that should inform Indiana’s health care system.”

Members of the workgroup are:

• Eric R. Wright, PhD, Director, Center for Health Policy, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs
• Eleanor D. Kinney, JD, MPH, Co-Director, Hall Center for Law and Health, IU School of Law, Indianapolis
• David Handel, Director, Health Administration Programs, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs
• Ann M. Holmes, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Economics, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs
• Eric M. Meslin, PhD, Director, Center for Bioethics, IU School of Medicine
• John Fitzgerald, MD, MB, Associate Dean, IU School of Medicine

Wright, co-chair, said that the workgroup’s vision is a “state-of-the-art healthcare delivery system for all Hoosiers that is cost effective. It will bring in national consultants and hold public meetings throughout the state to solicit input from the community and stakeholder groups.”

The work of the group will be conducted by Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis under a contract.