MEDIA CONTACT: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at (847) 491-4892 or at p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

October 21, 2002

FTC Chair to Give Keynote Address

CHICAGO --- Timothy J. Muris, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, will discuss health care and competition in his keynote address at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at Northwestern University School of Law’s seventh annual Competition in Health Care Forum.

The two-day forum on recent developments in the changing legal and regulatory landscape of the health care industry will take place Nov. 7 and 8 at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave.

Muris also will answer questions in a session led by Mark Taylor, legal affairs reporter for Modern Healthcare Magazine.

"The forum brings together government regulators who set policy and decide what challenges to bring," said R.A. Pete Wentz, associate dean for executive and professional education and communications. "Executives and economists who influence and are affected by policy will have significant opportunity to interact with them and to have their questions and concerns addressed."

Topics to be covered on Thursday include:

"Whither Antitrust? The Uncertain Future of Competition Law in Health Care"

"New Economic Tools for Market Definition -- A Critical Look at ‘Critical Loss’"

"Challenging Dominant Providers: Are the Traditional Tools Up to the Job?"

"Ethical Challenges for Lawyers, Directors, and Management: How to Avoid Being Dragged"

"Down in a Corporate Collapse…Lessons from Enron, AHERF, Allina"

Topics to be covered on Friday include:

"A Closer Look at Clinical Integration -- Pro-Competitive Elixir or Fairy Dust?"

"Open Marriage: Physicians in Competition with Their Hospitals"

Sponsors of the seventh annual Competition in Health Care Forum include Epstein Becker & Green; Gardner Carton & Douglas; Horty, Springer & Mattern; Lexecon Inc.; Modern Healthcare and Modern Physicians Magazines; and Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

As a program sponsored by Northwestern University School of Law, the Competition in Health Care Forum is recognized for mandatory continuing legal education credit in New York, California, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and other states. Tuition is $550.

For more information go to www.law.northwestern.edu/contexec or call (312) 503-8932.