Center for Health Administration Studies to celebrate 50 years with April 12 conference

The Center for Health Administration Studies, based at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a conference titled, "Equity and Choice in Health Care Access,” from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 12, at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center. 

“Since the founding of CHAS, its goal has been to promote active, interdisciplinary collaboration among scientists, health care providers and policy researchers around the world. This conference offers a chance to recognize the center’s contributions and look at contemporary issues in health care,” said center director Jeanne Marsh, the George Herbert Jones Distinguished Service Professor in SSA.

Marsh will open the conference and introduce two UChicago faculty members of the CHAS committee, Harold Pollack, the Helen Ross Professor in SSA, and Colleen Grogan, professor in SSA.

Sherry Glied, professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, will speak on the topic, “The Affordable Care Act: An Insider’s View,” in her keynote address. Glied served as assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services for the Obama administration from July 2010 through August 2012.

Other UChicago faculty speakers are Tamara Konetzka, associate professor of health services research, and David Meltzer, associate professor of medicine. Meltzer also directs the Center for Health and the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Scholars from around the country will join the SSA faculty in discussing disability and long-term care policy, health care reform, fairness and equity, and other issues related to health care. 

Henry Aaron, the Bruce and Virginia Mac Laury senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, will present “Today in Health Reform: the Calm Between the Storms” in the conference’s closing address.

The Center for Health Administration Studies, an endowed center founded in 1962, focuses on health services and health policy research with a particular emphasis on policy and services for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. 

Each academic year, the center sponsors the Michael M. Davis Lecture Series, bringing renowned policy practitioners, researchers and commentators to the University to explore the intersection of health policy and the broad needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.

The Center for Health Administration Studies also provides support for conferences and workshops focused on issues surrounding health services and health policy research.

The event is free and open to the campus community, but registration is required at the conference web page: http://ssa.uchicago.edu/chas-50th-anniversary.