Career Development : Calendar

Cleveland chapter — State health law implementation: Race to the starting line

05/16/13     Cleveland, OH

Please join the Cleveland-Akron chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists for a media briefing on Thursday, May 16.

Topic: The complex issues that Ohio faces this year, leading up to major 2014 health law changes.

Date: Thursday, May 16

Time: 6 p.m. open bar and appetizers; 6:30 p.m. program

Location: Cleveland State University's Levine College of Urban Affairs (Bonda Room – 2nd Floor) 2121 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 22115. Parking in the garage gives you direct access to the building (cost is $8). There is also plenty of free street parking starting at 6 p.m.

The panel will include:

  • Sarah Dash, research faculty associate at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, who will address the complex insurance aspects of implementing the health law, and how the insurance exchange will work.

  • Randall Cebul, director of the Center for Health Care Research and Policy at MetroHealth, and professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, who will discuss challenges facing hospitals such as health information technology adoption, potential workforce shortages, etc.

  • Richard Browdie, president and CEO, Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, who will talk about Ohio Medicaid initiatives and the challenges of caring for older beneficiaries, who tend to be among the most expensive in the program.

  • Sarah Jane Tribble, health care reporter, The Plain Dealer, who will suggest story ideas and tips on writing about the health law changes.

  • Moderator: Marilyn Werber Serafini, communications director and health policy adviser, Alliance for Health Reform, a nonpartisan, nonprofit health policy group based in Washington, D.C.


WHY: Less than a year from now, states must be ready to enroll millions of people in insurance exchanges, as outlined in the 2010 health care overhaul law. Or, the federal government will step in to do the job, or part of it.

States also have the option of opening their Medicaid programs to millions of new participants. But that's not much time, considering their long to-do lists.

Despite pushback from the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still hoping to expand the state’s Medicaid program and is committed to seeking federal help with the state’s insurance exchange.

  • What information do the states still need about how the federal and partnership exchanges will work?

  • How much latitude will the states have to handle eligibility for Medicaid and to make sure that people transitioning between Medicaid and subsidized private insurance in the exchanges won't have gaps in coverage?

  • Can the federal government be ready with its own exchanges?

  • Will insurers be ready in time?


Come to the briefing and find out!

Please RSVP to Eileen Beal 216-320-1358 eojb@visn.net.

This media briefing is sponsored by AHCJ and the Alliance for Health Reform, and is made possible through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.