The Private Healthcare Exchanges conference July 16-17 in Chicago will focus on how the Affordable Care Act is changing the way insurers sell health insurance.

The conference will focus on creating a way to foster public sector science and eliminate the influence of politics and corporations on that science. The all-day conference includes sessions on limiting conflicts of interest on federal advisory committees, with a special emphasis on the FDA; and disclosing conflicts of interest in the medical literature. One session of particular interest for health care reporters who plan to cover the reform debates this fall and in the new year is "Setting the Health Care Comparative Effectiveness Agenda: What Role for Industry?"

The Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform will hold a briefing to discuss the economic and care-based issues facing long-term care in the United States.