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At the American Bar Association’s Washington Healthcare Summit in the nation’s capital on December 6-7, 2010, Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis Professor David Orentlicher  participated in a panel discussion on “Health Care Reform Litigation: Its Impact and Response to State Challenges.” Priscilla D. Keith, ’93, Director of Research and Projects for the law school’s Hall Center for Law and Health moderated this same panel.

The Summit session focused on H.R. 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Act, signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. Shortly thereafter, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a complaint on behalf of the State of Florida and twelve other states challenging the constitutionality of the new law. The challenge asserts that the health care reform bill violates the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, and is therefore, unconstitutional. Moreover, it is argued that the health care reform bill violates the Commerce Clause, and as a result, Congress cannot require every person to purchase health insurance from a private company or face a penalty if they do not purchase the requisite insurance. The panel discussed the current status of health care reform litigation and its impact and response to state challenges. The panel also addressed the impact of state’s nullification statutes and the ability of the states to carry out current federal programs.

Professor Orentlicher is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law at IU Law – Indianapolis and co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health. A nationally recognized expert on bioethics, he is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. Before coming to IU, he served as director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the American Medical Association for six-and-a-half years. While there, he led the drafting of the AMA’s first patients’ bill of rights, guidelines for physician investment in health care facilities that were incorporated into federal law, and guidelines on gifts to physicians from industry that have become the industry standard and a standard recognized by the federal government. He helped develop many other positions—on end-of-life matters, organ transplantation, and reproductive issues—that have been cited by courts and government agencies in their decision-making.

Keith returned in 2010 to work for her alma mater, after serving as General Counsel of the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her primary focus was litigation and risk management. She is also an adjunct professor at the law school.

For more information about the Hall Center for Law and Health, visit the law school’s web site.