Segal Theatre, Ground Floor City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue (34th St), New York, NY 10016

Agenda:
Click on a speaker for a brief bio.

Morning session
Medicare Part D Panel (morning)

* Dick Cauchi of the National Conference on State Legislatures on Medicare Part D wrap and regulation policies in the states
* Valerie J. Bogart, Director of the Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program Selfhelp Community Services in NYC, on the implementation of Part D and its impact on dual eligibles, and New York?s wrap initiative
* New York Assemblyman Dick Gottfried on the New York experience
* Robert Hayes, Director of the Medicare Rights Center on Medicare Part D litigation

Legislators? Roundtable (morning)

* Legislators? roundtable on recent and pending initiatives in the states, including prescription data privacy, drug pricing, purchasing pools, PDP regulation, Medicare wrap, clinical trials, advertising & marketing, excessive pricing and more

Afternoon Session
PBM and Pharmaceutical Regulation and False Claims Act Panel (afternoon)

* Linda Cahn, Esq. Litigation Roundup: litigation by employee health plans against pharmacy benefit managers
* Maine Rep. John Brautigam, Esq. on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the Maine PBM law
* Patrick Burns, Communications Director of Taxpayers Against Fraud, on state False Claims Acts addressing Medicaid and Medicare fraud

Meeting adjourned at 2:30 pm

Short Bios of the Speakers

Valerie J. Bogart, Esq, is Director of the Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program at Selfhelp Community Services, Inc. Selfhelp is a non-profit that provides housing, case management, senior center, and health care services for 18,000 seniors each year. The Evelyn Frank Legal Resources Program provides legal training and consultation to Selfhelp?s 125 social workers from more than twenty sites in NYC and Nassau County, who, with the legal staff, help elderly persons navigate the maze of benefits and bureaucracies to maintain their independence. Before coming to Selfhelp, Ms. Bogart was a senior attorney with Legal Services for the Elderly in NYC, where for twelve years she specialized in litigation, training and policy in Medicaid and access to long-term care services. From 1997 - 2002, she was director of The Home Care Project at the Center for Disability Advocacy Rights (CeDAR), a non-profit organization established in part to do class actions, which are prohibited by Congressional restrictions on federally funded legal services offices. A graduate of the NYU School of Law, she has lectured extensively for both legal and social services organizations, and has taught adjunct courses at CUNY and Fordham law schools. Ms. Bogart has litigated cases challenging cutbacks in the Medicaid home care program in New York State and other limits on health care access. These included challenging the Medicaid fiscal assessment law, permanently enjoining a state regulation that limited the hours of Medicaid personal care available for new applicants, and establishing a system for holding fair hearings by phone or in the homes of people with disabilities.

Representative John Brautigam is serving in his first term in the Maine House of Representatives, representing parts of Falmouth and Portland. He serves on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee and the Utilities and Energy Committee. From 2000 to 2004 Mr. Brautigam served as an Assistant Attorney General of Maine, where he concentrated on issues relating to state prescription drug benefit programs and prescription drug pricing. He was co-counsel for the state in the successful defense of the Maine Rx program in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Brautigam holds a law degree from Stanford Law School.

Patrick Burns is the Director of Communications at Taxpayers Against Fraud where he works on False Claims Act issues. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and Georgetown University where he received his Masters in demography. Mr. Burns has spent 24 years in the nonprofit arena, as was formerly Director of Communications for the National Council of Senior Citizens where he was a frequently quoted expert on Medicare and prescription drug issues. Mr. Burns has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Newshour, Crossfire, C-Span and many other radio and TV shows, as well as authored scores of editorials in newspapers across the U.S.

Linda J. Cahn is an attorney specializing in litigation against Pharmaceutical Benefit Management companies (?PBMs?), and the founder of Pharmacy Benefit Consultants, a corporation assisting insurance companies, corporations and unions in decreasing their drug benefit costs. In 1997, Ms. Cahn initiated the first class action lawsuits in the nation against PBMs. As a result, she reviewed hundreds of thousands of confidential, internal PBM documents ? and hundreds of PBM/client contracts - revealing how PBMs secretly increase their clients? costs and incorporate ?loopholes? in their clients? contracts to enable the PBMs to drive up their clients? costs. Based on information she learned in her litigation, Ms. Cahn began advising entities about how to conduct RFPs and negotiate and draft PBM contracts that entirely eliminate PBM contract ?loopholes?. Ms. Cahn also began representing individual corporations ? including insurance companies ? to recoup their damages from PBMs? wrongful practices. In addition, Ms. Cahn helped federal prosecutors and state attorneys general from approximately 20 state offices initiate investigations against PBMs. Ms. Cahn also advised several U.S. Senate Committees about PBMs and drug pricing issues, and conducted extensive meetings with reporters from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, AP wire service, Newark Star-Ledger and NPR. Recent Pharmacy Benefit Consultants? clients include an HMO and Blue Cross Blue Shield organization, several Fortune 50 and smaller corporations, and a national union. Ms. Cahn is a graduate of Princeton University and Hofstra Law School - both with honors - and a member of the N.Y. and N.J. Bars.

Richard Cauchi is a Health Program Director at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Denver office, where he directs projects on Pharmaceuticals, Health Finance and Managed Care. He has written issue reports on subjects including "State Pharmaceutical Assistance Programs", "What?s the Benefit? Medicare Rx and the States? and "Managed Care: Where Do We Go From Here?" In the past three years he provided special briefings on pharmaceutical policy at national meetings of state legislators in California, Illinois, New Orleans, Texas, Washington, D.C. and for 20 legislative sessions including Alaska, Maryland, Oklahoma, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington state. He has been the source for recent health stories in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the AMA's American Medical News, USA Today and London Financial Times. Prior to joining NCSL in 1997, Mr. Cauchi spent 25 years working on public policy analysis and tracking bills in the Massachusetts State Legislature, including a 7-year stint working on Medicaid budgets. He majored in history and government at Tufts University in Massachusetts; and also completed graduate courses in Asian studies. He presently resides in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Robert M. Hayes, an attorney, is president of the Medicare Rights Center, the nation's largest independent source of information and assistance on health care rights and benefits for older and disabled men and women. Mr. Hayes led the National and New York Coalitions for the Homeless from 1979 to 1989, and has practiced law with firms in New York and Maine including Sullivan & Cromwell and O'Melveny & Myers. Mr. Hayes is a MacArthur Foundation fellow and has received honorary degrees from 10 colleges and universities. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the New York University School of Law.