by Holly Hayes The American Arbitration Association will hold the 2012 Healthcare Dispute Resolution, Innovation and Strategy Conference on November 9, 2012, in San Francisco. The agenda includes the following sessions on incorporating ADR into the changing healthcare arena: Representatives from the major health plans will discuss the significant issues and business-to-business disputes facing their respective organizations. In-house counsel for health plans will weigh in on how ADR can offer solutions and, from their perspectives, discuss what the future holds for the changing healthcare landscape. FACULTY Steven M. Cohen, Associate General Counsel, Anthem Blue CrossWoodland Hills, CA Ed Neugebauer, Deputy Chief Legal Officer & Head of Litigation, Aetna, Blue Bell, PA Peter H. Walsh, Senior Deputy General Counsel, Chief of Litigation, Investigations & Privacy, UnitedHealth Group, Minnetonka, MN As the previous session probed issues and disputes from the point of view of health plans, this panel will explore the same for providers, which include health systems and hospitals. In-house counsel for providers will review their perspectives on how ADR might offer solutions and what the future holds for the changing healthcare landscape. FACULTY Jeffrey S. Bromme, Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Adventist Health System, Altamonte Springs, FL Pamela Marino, Vice President Legal Operations, Sutter Health Systems, San Francisco, CA Mitch H. Melfi, Senior Vice President, Legal Services & General Counsel, Catholic Health Initiatives, Denver, CO Integration of Physicians into Health Networks: Medical Staff, Credentialing & Physician Contracts Round Table:What is the impact on physicians and medical staffs arising from the change in status of physicians from independent practitioners to hospital/health network contract employees or doctors closely integrated with hospitals and systems? Issues to be discussed include credentialing, peer review, and access to fair hearing procedures. Particular attention will be focused on employment contracts and the role of ADR as a mechanism for resolving disputes in physician employment agreements. FACULTY Catherine M. Ballard, Partner, Bricker & Eckler, LLP, Columbus, OH Katherine Benesch, Partner, Benesch & Associates, Princeton, NJ Ann O’Connell, Of Counsel, Nossaman, LLP, Sacramento, CA Dale Cowan, MD, J.D., Vice President, Medical Affairs, Parma Community General Hospital, Parma, OH   Holly Hayes is a mediator at Karl Bayer, Dispute Resolution Expert where she focuses on mediation of health care disputes. Holly holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University and a Masters in Health Administration from Duke University. She can be reached at: holly@karlbayer.com.

In this Video, Professor Mandell, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, discusses how to develop negotiation skills. Check it out!  

Professor S.I. Strong (University of Missouri School of Law) has published “What Constitutes an ‘Agreement in Writing’ in International Commercial Arbitration? Conflicts Between the New York Convention and the Federal Arbitration Act,” 48 Stanford Journal of International Law 47 (2012). The abstract is: This Article investigates whether and to what extent a party must produce an “agreement in writing” when seeking to enforce an international arbitration agreement or award in a U.S. federal court. This issue has recently given rise to both a circuit split and a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, and involves matters of formal validity as well as federal subject matter jurisdiction. The problem arises out of subtle differences in the way an “agreement in writing” is defined in the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the 1958 United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention). This is not just a U.S. problem, however. Questions relating to form requirements under the New York Convention have also been much discussed at the international level, with UNCITRAL recently issuing a formal recommendation on how to deal with the problem. This Article describes the scope of the current problems associated with form requirements, including how inconsistencies in domestic practice affect international commercial arbitration and global trade. After discussing the difficulties in both the U.S. and the international sphere, the Article makes a number of suggestions for legislative and judicial reform. This is the first article to discuss the circuit split and associated issues in the context of the FAA and to take a serious comparative look at the implementation of the UNCITRAL recommendation at the international level. The full article may be downloaded here. Other scholarly papers by Professor S.I. Strong are here.

Join the International Chamber of Commerce at its Training on Commercial Arbitration in Paris, on December 3-6, 2012. This advanced-level training provides and in-depth understanding and first-hand experience of the ICC Arbitration procedure under the 2012 ICC Rules of Arbitration. For more details click here.