College of Public Health to Host Panel Discussion on Post-Election Forecast for Healthcare Reform

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 18, 2014) —The University of Kentucky College of Public Health will host a Grand Rounds seminar 11 a.m., Nov. 20 in 115 College of Nursing, featuring a panel discussion on the state of public health and healthcare reform in the wake of the recent elections. 

Panelists for the presentation include Julia Costich, professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College of Public Health; Hannah Knudsen, associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Science in the College of Medicine; and Glen Mays, director of the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and Public Health Practice-Based Networks and professor in the College of Public Health. Lunch will be provided to attendees who RSVP by Tuesday, Nov. 18. 

The discussion will include brief presentations on the results of empirical research that relates to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the implications of that research on healthcare reform and public health as we move into the next two years of divided government.  Attendees will also have the opportunity to pose questions to the panelists about the ACA, healthcare reform and the politics of population health funding.

Specifically, the panelists will offer perspectives on the following issues:

Costich will present a broad overview of Kentucky’s progress in ACA implementation. She will discuss her work with Mays and their colleagues at the Brookings Institute to contribute to the ACA Implementation Research Network’s observation of ACA implementation strategies at granular levels in 36 states.

Knudsen will present results from a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded health services study examining state-level growth in the number of physicians who are waivered to prescribe buprenorphine to opioid-dependent patients.  Specifically, she will present data collected from June 2013 to September 2014 that compares rates of waivered physicians in three types of state-level ACA implementation contexts to examine the impact of the ACA on treatment availability for individuals with opioid dependence.

Mays will provide an overview of his work examining the interplay of Medicaid spending and public health spending under ACA and the projected health and economic effects. This research provides background for a discussion of some of the interesting public financing and political economy issues that will be playing out as ACA implementation moves forward in expansion and non-expansion states.

RSVP to Nicole Howard at nicole.howard@uky.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT: Mallory Powell, mallory.powell@uky.edu