Events
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): "How the Alzheimers Revolution Impacts the Responsible Conduct of Alzheimer’s Research" - Jason Karlawish, MD
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2026-01-13 12:00:00
2026-01-13 13:00:00
America/New_York
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): "How the Alzheimers Revolution Impacts the Responsible Conduct of Alzheimer’s Research" - Jason Karlawish, MD
How the Alzheimers Revolution Impacts the Responsible Conduct of Alzheimer’s Research
Jason Karlawish, MD
Professor of Medicine, Medical Ethics & Health Policy, and Neurology
Co-Director, Penn Memory Center
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases that cause dementia are undergoing a revolution in their definition, diagnosis and treatment. Using biomarker tests, a clinician can accurately determine the disease causing cognitive impairments, and for some patients, prescribe treatments that affect the natural history of the disease. These advances hold great promise for the care of patients. They also present challenges to the responsible conduct of research that enrolls these patients. This talk will review these challenges, with attention to nomenclature, return of research results and the selection of control group in clinical trials.
Registration required; Lunch provided.
Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: RCH B102AB, Richards Bldg., 3700 Hamilton Walk (and virtual via Zoom)
Penn Medical Ethics
Virtual, via Zoom
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Organ Diversion or Match Run Deviation? Ethical Considerations in Allocation Out of Sequence" - Andrew M. Courtwright, MD, PhD
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2026-01-27 12:00:00
2026-01-27 13:00:00
America/New_York
Penn Bioethics Seminar (PBS): "Organ Diversion or Match Run Deviation? Ethical Considerations in Allocation Out of Sequence" - Andrew M. Courtwright, MD, PhD
Organ Diversion or Match Run Deviation? Ethical Considerations in Allocation Out of Sequence
Andrew M. Courtwright, MD, PhD
Clinician, Division of Pulmonary Medicine
Adjunct Professor, University of Utah Department of Philosophy
University of Utah Health
The rise of Allocation Out of Sequence (AOOS) in organ transplantation in the United States has raised significant ethical concerns. By the end of 2024, 20% of kidneys were transplanted out of the standard match sequence, drawing regulatory scrutiny. Critics argue that AOOS amounts to organ diversion: it fails to prevent organ nonuse, does not address underlying inefficiencies in organ allocation, lacks transparency, and worsens transplant-related disparities.
In this talk, Dr. Courtwright discusses the factors contributing to the expansion of AOOS and evaluates the normative arguments for and against its use. Drawing on a constructivist framework, he argues that AOOS violates the expectation that allocation policies be grounded in collective agreement. Dr. Courtwright identifies considerations that should inform Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network policy revisions, emphasizing the need for shared norms to ensure procedural legitimacy.
Virtual, via Zoom
Penn Medical Ethics
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
HP X LDI Research Seminar: Riley League, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
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2026-01-29 12:00:00
2026-01-29 13:00:00
America/New_York
HP X LDI Research Seminar: Riley League, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Fragmented Insurance and Billing Frictions: Understanding Denied Health Insurance Claims
Open to Penn Affiliates
Please note: Registration for this event is required. Please register here: https://share.hsforms.com/1dAXFMDm7T9CYwjJW6RBjXQ5gwp1.
This event is co-sponsored with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
Billing and insurance-related activities are a dominant driver of the high administrative costs of the US health care system. However, the economics claim denials—the most visible manifestation of billing frictions—remains poorly understood. We explain why the prevalence of claim denials is an economic puzzle and investigate why denials persist in equilibrium. Using data from the Massachusetts All-Payer Claims Database, we document that denials are prevalent even for private insurers and show that these denials are largely for low-cost, routine services. We then present evidence that insurance fragmentation is a key driver of claim denials: the rate of denials spikes when enrollees change insurers, and different insurers have very different equilibrium denial rates for the same service, suggesting providers do not narrowly tailor their billing across insurers. Together, these findings highlight how fragmented insurance structures and heterogeneous coverage rules can contribute to inefficiency and waste in the U.S. health care system.
Riley League is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gies College of Business. His research interests lie in health economics and industrial organization, with a focus on how administrative burdens shape the delivery, cost, and outcomes of health care in the United States. He also conducts research on the dialysis industry, where he and his coauthors examine the significant influence of financial, regulatory, and legal incentives. He holds a courtesy appointment in the University of Illinois Department of Economics and is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Prior to joining the faculty, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Health and Aging Research at the NBER, following the completion of his PhD in Economics at Duke University in May 2023.
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
Penn Medical Ethics
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
HP X CHIBE X LDI Policy Seminar: Liz Fowler, JD, PhD, Former Director of the CMMI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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2026-02-03 12:00:00
2026-02-03 13:00:00
America/New_York
HP X CHIBE X LDI Policy Seminar: Liz Fowler, JD, PhD, Former Director of the CMMI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Registration for this event is required. You can register here: https://share.hsforms.com/1uOsbW5WGR3a83Fluxioe3g5gwp1.
This event is co-sponsored by the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Center for Health Incentives & Behavioral Economics.
Dr. Liz Fowler is a nationally recognized expert in federal health policy and a visionary leader with a proven record of success in both public and private sector executive roles. Most recently, Dr. Fowler was Deputy Administrator and Director of the Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In that role, she was responsible for advancing innovative payment and care delivery models in Medicare and Medicaid to promote value-based care on a national scale. Under her leadership, the CMS Innovation Center launched a new strategy focused on accountable care and designed, announced, and administered 37 payment and care delivery reform models impacting nearly 200,000 hospitals, physicians and 57 million patients between 2022 to 2024. These value-based payment models have provided an important testing ground and scaling opportunity for innovative start-ups and health care disrupters.
Prior to leading the Innovation Center, she was Executive Vice President of programs at The Commonwealth Fund and Vice President for Global Health Policy at Johnson & Johnson. In 2011-2012, she served as special assistant to President Obama on health care and economic policy at the National Economic Council to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As Chief Health Counsel at the Senate Finance Committee, she played a major role in the drafting and passage of the ACA in 2010, and she also played a key role drafting the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA).
Dr. Fowler has over 25 years of experience in health policy and health services research. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a law degree (JD) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Fowler is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Aspen Health Innovators Fellowship and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022.
Colonial Penn Center Auditorium
Penn Medical Ethics
Hybrid: 11-102AB 3600 Civic Ctr Blvd, and via Zoom
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): Sickle Cell Gene Therapy - Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH
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2026-02-10 12:00:00
2026-02-10 13:00:00
America/New_York
Research Ethics & Policy Series (REPS): Sickle Cell Gene Therapy - Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH
Sickle Cell Gene Therapy
Alexis A. Thompson, MD, MPH
Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology)
Chief, Division of Hematology
Elias Schwartz MD Endowed Chair in Hematology
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. Thompson has dedicated her career to advocating for bringing cutting-edge treatments and technology to sickle cell disease (SCD) patients locally and globally to help improve their quality of life. She brings hematological expertise as a member of CHOP’s Sickle Cell and Red Cell Disorders Curative Therapy Center (CuRED), which is one of a select group of treatment centers offering gene therapies to treat SCD. Her clinical research on the lentiviral vector therapy lovotibeglogene autotemcel for severe sickle cell disease also led to the approvals of the first two gene therapies for SCD.
More detail to follow.
Registration required; Lunch provided
Streaming available via Zoom.
Hybrid: 11-102AB 3600 Civic Ctr Blvd, and via Zoom
Penn Medical Ethics
To be added to MEHP's events listserv, please contact lisa.bailey@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.