CLE-UNLV Health Law Program 2022 Annual Conference-Creating a More Resilient Healthcare System: Public options, workforce evolution, health equity

UNLV Health Law Program 2022 Annual Conference

Creating a More Resilient Healthcare System: Public options, workforce evolution, health equity

April 22, 2022
8:50 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. (Pacific Time)
William S. Boyd School of Law
Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility
Approved for 4.5 Nevada CLE credits

The COVID pandemic has exposed and exacerbated serious gaps in the U.S. healthcare system—high costs that leave many people uninsured or underinsured, staffing shortages, and inequities in access and quality of care across racial, ethnic, and other socioeconomic lines. This conference will discuss strategies to address these gaps and ensure that the U.S. healthcare system can better handle the demands of the COVID pandemic, as well as future pandemics or other stresses.

Agenda
8:50-9:00 am
Welcome
 
9:00-10:00 am—Public options (Video presentation)
Ensuring access to affordable healthcare is critical to limiting the spread of communicable diseases such as COVID and the severity of their impact on infected persons. Yet millions of families are uninsured or underinsured. Nevada and a few other states have enacted legislation authorizing a government-sponsored health insurance plan to provide a more affordable option for families that have to purchase their own plans. In this session, our speaker will discuss the role of public options in addressing access and cost concerns.
Professor Erin Fuse Brown, Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society, Georgia State University College of Law
 
10:00-11:00 am—Workforce evolution (Video presentation)
A robust healthcare workforce can respond to a pandemic more quickly and effectively and to mitigate its impacts. But even before the COVID pandemic struck, Nevada and other states faced significant shortages of healthcare providers. In addition, the stresses on healthcare workers lead to problems with burnout. In this session, our speaker will discuss possible strategies to address healthcare workforce needs, including greater use of non-physician providers and telehealth.
Dr. Hilary Campbell, Director of Health Workforce NC, Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
11:00-11:10 am
Break
 
11:10 am-12:10 pm—Health equity (Video presentation)
Minority and lower-economic populations have long experienced less access to healthcare and poorer health outcomes, and the COVID pandemic has only exacerbated the disparities. In this session, our speaker will discuss reforms to promote a more equitable healthcare system, both in terms of immediate steps to lessen the impact of the COVID pandemic and longer-terms steps to mitigate health disparities going forward.
Dean Dayna Matthew, George Washington University Law School 
  
12:10-12:30 pm
Break
 
12:30-1:30 pm—Conference theme and lunch (Video presentation)
During the COVID pandemic response, healthcare systems have struggled to meet the demands placed on them. Inadequate preventive measures, insufficient protective equipment and ICU beds, and other gaps exposed critical shortcomings. In this session, our speaker will take a broad view of the conference theme and discuss how reforms made when stemming the COVID-19 pandemic can make for a healthcare system that better meets the public’s needs and enhances resilience to future pandemics or other stresses to the healthcare system.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health  

Fees