The UT Southwestern Library will sponsor a free health policy forum presentation by Thomas Mayo, J.D., a law professor at Southern Methodist University (SMU), entitled “Health Care’s Day in Court: Trials of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. The forum will be held on Tuesday, November 15, at 12 noon, in McDermott Lecture Hall D1.700 and is open to the public. Ethan Halm, M.D., UT Southwestern Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Sciences and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, will host the forum. Light lunch will be served so please come early!

More than 20 legal challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been filed since it became law in 2010. Five federal district judges and three federal appeals courts have rendered contradictory opinions concerning the legality of the “insurance mandate” and other aspects of the law. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to consider the ACA and rule next year.

Meanwhile, implementation of the law proceeds. For example, insurance companies cannot deny coverage because of previous condition, children may remain on parents’ policies until age 26, and there is no lifetime cap on insurance benefits. What happens next will likely impact every aspect of health care delivery in America.

Thomas Wm. Mayo, J.D., is Associate Professor, SMU’s Dedman School of Law; Adjunct Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern; and Of Counsel, Haynes and Boone, LLP. He is also the immediate past director of SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. He currently teaches about nonprofit organizations, health care law (health care finance and regulation), torts, and bioethics, as well as a literature course for fourth-year medical students and third-year law students. He is a Fellow in the American Health Lawyers Association and the former poetry columnist for the Dallas Morning News.

Ethan A. Halm, M.D., M.P.H., is Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Sciences and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern. Dr. Halm, who holds the Walter Family Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine in Honor of Albert D. Roberts, M.D., is actively involved in clinical epidemiology, outcomes, and health services research. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University, M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, and M.P.H. from Harvard University. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others.

Co-sponsors of the Forum:
UT Southwestern Medical Center Library, UT School of Public Health/Dallas Regional Campus, UT Southwestern Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Department of Clinical Sciences/Division of Ethics & Health Policy, American Medical Women’s Association, Medical Humanities Interest Group, UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, Dallas County HHS District 3 Public Health Advisory Committee, UT Southwestern Department of Family Medicine/Division of Community Medicine, Dallas-Ft.Worth Area Health Education Council, UT Southwestern Department of Clinical Sciences/Division of Outcomes and Health Services Research, Global Health Interest Group, and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Department of Clinical Sciences, recipient of the NIH’s CTSA award, titled “UT Southwestern Clinical and Translational Alliance for Research (UT-STAR).”

Pre-registration for the forum is not required. For more information, please contact John Fullinwider either by phone at 214.648.3801 or by email at  john.fullinwider@utsouthwestern.edu.