Law School Events

 

Upcoming Events

 

 

Implementing Health Care Reform in Mississippi:  Considering Policy and Economics

 

Date:

  • Friday, April 5, 2013

Time:

  • 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Reception to follow

Place:

  • MC Law Auditorium

            151 East Griffith Street

            Jackson, MS 39201

CLE Accreditation: 

 

Moderator:

  • Jonathan F. Will

            Assistant Professor of Law and Director, Bioethics & Health Law Center,  Mississippi College School of Law

            http://law.mc.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/will

 

Panelists:

  • Topher Spiro

Topher Spiro is the Vice President for Health Policy at American Progress, where he leads the Health Policy team that includes former Obama administration official Zeke Emanuel, former Medicare administrator Don Berwick, and Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD). Spiro’s work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic, The Hill, and the Annals of Internal Medicine. He has also testified before Congress and appeared on National Public Radio.  Prior to joining American Progress, Spiro worked on health care reform at both the federal and state levels. He served as deputy staff director for health policy for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions under Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). At the committee, Spiro was a member of the team that drafted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. He has also served in other senior roles in the Senate, as senior policy advisor for Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), and for the Senate Special Committee on Aging. In addition to his Senate service, Spiro served as health policy director for the Rhode Island Healthcare Reform Commission, where he coordinated implementation of health reform and led the stakeholder-consultation process for the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange.  Spiro received his B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

  • Mike Chaney

Vicksburg resident Mike Chaney is Mississippi’s Commissioner of Insurance. Prior to his election in 2007, Commissioner Chaney served seven years in the Mississippi House of Representatives and eight years in the Mississippi Senate.  Since taking office in January 2008, Commissioner Chaney has brought a style of openness and accessibility to the office, including opening a Mississippi Insurance Department office on the Gulf Coast. He is a past president of the Republican Elected Officials of Mississippi and serves on the state Republican Executive Committee.  He is a 1966 graduate of Mississippi State University with B.S. in Business and Finance and is a veteran of the United States Army, serving in Vietnam in 1968-69.  He is married to Mary Thurmond Chaney and they have three children and eight grandchildren.

  • Bob Neal

Dr. Bob Neal is a senior economist at the University Research Center, a position he has held since 1999.  At the URC, his primary responsibility is conducting economic impact analyses for the Governor’s Office, the State Legislature, and other agencies of state government.  Dr. Neal’s other research interests and areas of expertise include internet commerce and the economics of education.  A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Dr. Neal received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  He earned a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Clemson University.  Before assuming his current position at the URC, Dr. Neal served as a research economist at the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research at Tarleton State University and Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana at Monroe).

  • Brooke Plummer

Brooke Plummer graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi College School of Law in 2006.  Upon graduating from law school, Plummer served as a judicial law clerk for The Honorable Donna M. Barnes of the Mississippi Court of Appeals and The Honorable Karen L. Hayes of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.  Plummer is currently serving as Regulatory Compliance Counsel for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi where she advises the company on implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.