Law Commons^™

Broken Promises: The Granite State’S Return To The Institutionalization Of Children With Disabilities, Elizabeth Trautz

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

In 1975, the New Hampshire legislature enacted a progressive statute which mandated the Department of Health and Human Services “to establish, maintain, implement and coordinate a comprehensive service delivery system for developmentally disabled persons.” This law was innovative for its time; it decreed that individual service plans (ISPs) be developed for every client in the state’s service delivery system, guaranteed “a right to adequate and humane habilitation and treatment[,]” and contemplated the state’s area agency system as we know it today. The statute was a steppingstone for the 1981 class action lawsuit of Garrity v. Gallen. This was one of …

Workplace Violence Prevention For Nurses And Healthcare Workers In The State Of Maine A Health Policy Initiative, Gretchen Forsley

DNP Scholarly Projects

Abstract

Background: Health care workplace violence is a pervasive and persistent problem, underreported, and when reported it is tolerated, excused, or ignored. Prior to the pandemic, the “normal” demands of a stressful workplace for a resilient nurse might include short staffing, a lack of resources, violence, bullying, and disruptive behaviors from patients or families. Since the pandemic, the rates of increasing healthcare violence can be attributed to several factors such as delays in care and services, reducing admissions and procedures, consistent understaffing, a lack of adequate mental health services, increased violence against women, limited or no visitor policies, low-security coverage, …

Post-Pandemic Privacy Law, Tiffany C. Li

Law Faculty Scholarship

COVD-19, the global pandemic that began in 2019, altered how we live our lives in just about every way imaginable. Some of those changes were obvious-for example, those who were fortunate enough to be able to work from home began working online-while other changes were more subtle. The latter category included unprecedented levels of data collection by governments and organizations purporting to collect information that would help stop the pandemic's spread. Given the deadly nature of COVID-19, few would question any public health efforts, no matter their impact on privacy. However, the lack of attention to privacy issues during the …

Privacy In Pandemic: Law, Technology, And Public Health In The Covid-19 Crisis, Tiffany C. Li

Law Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of deaths and disastrous consequences around the world, with lasting repercussions for every field of law, including privacy and technology. The unique characteristics of this pandemic have precipitated an increase in use of new technologies, including remote communications platforms, healthcare robots, and medical Al. Public and private actors alike are using new technologies, like heat sensing, and technologically influenced programs, like contact tracing, leading to a rise in government and corporate surveillance in sectors like healthcare, employment, education, and commerce. Advocates have raised the alarm for privacy and civil liberties violations, but the emergency …

Youth Homelessness - State Policy Review, Adam Mercer

Student Research Projects

This project was sponsored by Waypoint within their runaway and homeless youth continuum. Waypoint is a private non-profit operating in New Hampshire and supporting homeless youth statewide. The objective of the project was to review state policies affecting youth for the purpose of increasing Waypoint’s ability to advocate for legislative changes that can prevent and bring an end to youth homelessness.

The rights and freedoms of minors in unsafe situations are often limited and tied to another person’s guardianship, which may not be the best option for them. Expanding their rights through new policy could improve their safety, quality of …

Bill To Restrict Indoor Tanning For Minors In The State Of Maine, Jamie M. Lowery

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Melanoma is the deadliest and the most common type of cancer in individuals age 15 to 29. Evidence has shown that ultraviolet radiation overexposure at younger ages significantly increases the risk of developing non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancer in later years. Despite these concerns, approximately 1.6 million minors under the age of 18 participate in the use of indoor tanning devices annually. The high prevalence of skin cancer in the United States continues to be a public health issue that warrants continued preventative and regulatory action. In spite of the health risks associated with indoor tanning, the state of …

Key New Hampshire And Federal Statutes Regulating Health Care Delivery And Payment, Lucy Hodder

Law Faculty Scholarship

A summary of New Hampshire and federal regulations by subject matter, chart of New Hampshire state agency responsibilities, federal laws and regulation: An index

Substance Use Disorder Treatment Confidentiality Boot Camp, Lucy C. Hodder, Stephanie Cameron, Marcy Doyle, Christina Muñiz, Jeanne Ryer Edd

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt]: "INTRODUCTION: The Health Law and Policy Programs at UNH School of Law, Institute for Health Policy and Practice, and the NH Citizens Health Initiative have contracted with several of the New Hampshire Building Capacity for Transformation Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN) to provide technical assistance to the IDNs as they develop confidentiality tools related to substance use disorder services projects.

A UNH Team assisted the IDNs by providing an educational summary of federal and state confidentiality requirements, focusing on 42 CFR Part 2, and hosting IDN interdisciplinary teams in three Substance Use Disorder (SUD) …

Covering The Care: Cost Sharing Reductions In Nh, Jo Porter, Lucy C. Hodder

Law Faculty Scholarship

This brief uses national data to describe the NH population who received Cost Sharing Reductions for coverage on the NH Marketplace.

Covering The Care: A Focus On The Nh Marketplace, Jo Porter, Lucy C. Hodder

Law Faculty Scholarship

The second brief uses national and state data to describe the NH population enrolled in the health insurance plans through the NH Marketplace.

Covering The Care: Health Insurance Coverage In New Hampshire, Jo Porter, Lucy Hodder

Law Faculty Scholarship

the first in a series of data and policy briefs that seek to inform the current conversations about health reform happening across the state. The first brief uses data from the American Community Survey to provide information about the health insurance coverage landscape in NH.

Marijuana Regulation And Federalism, John M. Greabe

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "Federal law makes the cultivation and use of marijuana illegal for all purposes. Yet, over the past two decades, 28 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes, and eight states plus the District of Columbia have legalized it for recreational purposes. Marijuana regulation thus provides a useful and timely example for exploring the ways in which the distribution of power between the federal government and the states can facilitate policy change."

Opinion: The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act: What Parity Means For New Hampshire, Lucy C. Hodder

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "New Hampshire lawyers can help clients and colleagues with mental health or substance use disorders by advising individuals how to overcome barriers to insurance coverage for treatment, and encouraging them to pursue state and federally mandated internal, external and expedited appeal opportunities when denied coverage."

Resource Guide For Addiction And Mental Health Care Consumers: Answering Questions About Insurance Coverage And Parity For Addiction And Mental Health Care Services, Lucy C. Hodder, Michele D. Merritt, Margaret H. Schmidt, Jacqueline Botchman, Caitlyn Ebert, Marguerite Corvini, Kate Crary, Bridget Drake

Law Faculty Scholarship

Navigating the maze of health insurance coverage can be difficult. For individuals with addiction or mental illness, the process of getting treatment approved and paid for by health insurance can be overwhelming. As a result, many people give up when their health insurance company denies coverage for needed services. This Guide can help people learn how to access health insurance and use their coverage to pay for treatment. This Guide also provides a basic explanation of consumers’ rights under the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

Model All-Payer Claims Database Legislation, Lucy Hodder, Jo Porter, Ashley Peters

Law Faculty Scholarship

With support from the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center, the APCD Council has developed model legislation guidance for states to develop all-payer claims database legislation.

Nudging The Fda, W. Nicholson Price Ii, I. Glenn Cohen

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "The FDA’s regulation of drugs is frequently the subject of policy debate, with arguments falling into two camps. On the one hand, a libertarian view of patients and the health care system holds high the value of consumer choice. Patients should get all the information and the drugs they want; the FDA should do what it can to enforce some basic standards but should otherwise get out of the way. On the other hand, a paternalist view values the FDA’s role as an expert agency standing between patients and a set of potentially dangerous drugs and potentially unscrupulous or …

Making Do In Making Drugs: Innovation Policy And Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Law Faculty Scholarship

Despite increasing recalls, contamination events, and shortages, drug companies continue to rely on outdated manufacturing plants and processes. Drug manufacturing’s inefficiency and lack of innovation stand in stark contrast to drug discovery, which is the focus of a calibrated innovation policy that combines patents and FDA regulation. Pharmaceutical manufacturing lags far behind the innovative techniques found in other industries due to high regulatory barriers and ineffective intellectual property incentives. Among other challenges, although manufacturers tend to rely on trade secrecy because of the difficulty in enforcing patents on manufacturing processes, trade secrecy provides limited incentives for innovation. To increase those …

Segregation In United States Healthcare: From Reconstruction To Deluxe Jim Crow, Kerri L. Hunkele

Honors Theses and Capstones

During the time period between Reconstruction and the Deluxe Jim Crow era, African Americans were legally oppressed, which hindered their ability to live fully and equally in society with whites. This was especially true in terms of healthcare. Segregation laws were implemented to separate blacks from the rest of society in everyday life; the worst of these laws affected the ability of African Americans to gain access to medical care that was equal to whites. This inequality prevented blacks from being accepted into society and from living quality lives that stem from adequate healthcare. Although the federal and state governments …

Intellectual Property And Public Health – A White Paper, Ryan G. Vacca, James Ming Chen, Jay Dratler Jr., Thomas Folsom, Timothy S. Hall, Yaniv Heled, Frank A. Pasquale Iii, Elizabeth A. Reilly, Jeffrey Samuels, Katherine J. Strandburg, Kara W. Swanson, Andrew W. Torrance, Katharine A. Van Tassel

Law Faculty Scholarship

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential solutions at the intersection of these fields. This report summarizes this discussion by describing the problems raised, areas of agreement and disagreement between the participants, suggestions and solutions made by participants and the subsequent evaluations of these suggestions and solutions. Led by the moderator, participants at the Forum focused generally on three broad …

From Trusted Confidant To Witness For The Prosecution: The Case Against The Recognition Of A Dangerous-Patient Exception To The Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege, Deborah Paruch

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In 1996, in Jaffee v. Redmond, the U.S. Supreme Court, pursuant to the authority set forth in Federal Rule of Evidence 501, recognized a psychotherapist-patient privilege in the federal courts. In doing so, the Court acknowledged the essential role that confidentiality plays in a therapist-patient relationship and also recognized the important role that psychotherapy plays in the mental health of the American citizenry. However, in dicta set out in a footnote near the conclusion of the opinion (footnote 19 of the opinion), the Court suggested that the privilege might not be absolute, that it might need to “give way …

The Elderly And Health Care Rationing, George P. Smith Ii

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The allocation of health care resources involves a societal determination of what resources should be devoted to a particular program. The allocation process is typically performed on a ―macro‖ level, with allocation decisions often affecting only statistical lives. In contrast to the identifiable lives often affected by health care rationing, statistical lives affected by allocation decisions are much more readily sacrificed. A common means of deciding health care allocation is through political processes. Government decisions pertaining to health care spending and regulation typically involve allocation determinations. For example, the Medicare and Medicaid programs allocate resources for numerous purposes. Hospitals, …

Universal Health Care, American Pragmatism, And The Ethics Of Health Policy: Questioning Political Efficacy, Daniel S. Goldberg

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “This article will explore the conceptual implications of applying ethical critique and analysis to health policy. This is not to imply any reductionist conception of health policy in which ethics is absent. As Deborah Stone and John W. Kingdon both note, policy is fraught with ethical implications, and value prioritization is a sine qua non for health policy. Nevertheless, I wish to suggest that there are some conceptually significant distinctions in thinking of the ethics of health policy as opposed to thinking separately about ethics and about health policy. Moreover, these distinctions themselves are of value, both in thinking …

Entitlements: Not Just A Health Care Problem, Andrew G. Biggs

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “A new consensus on entitlement reform has developed in Washington: rising per-capita health care spending is the only real crisis besetting the government‘s entitlement programs, while America‘s aging population and Social Security play minor roles at best. Some cite this view to shift the policy emphasis from entitlement cost control to the restructuring of the U.S. health sector, including private health care. But this new consensus is flawed. Using standard accounting practices and including all major government entitlement programs, population aging will play an equal role with health care cost growth over the next seventy-five years and a significantly …

Revisiting The Regulation Debate: The Effect Of Food Marketing On Childhood Obesity, Nicole E. Hunter

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Despite the widespread concern regarding childhood obesity, there is broad divergence of opinion regarding responsibility for the crisis. Whether the government, food industry, or parents are accountable has become the focus of much debate. Public health groups have attempted various strategies to confront childhood obesity, such as litigation, legislation, and government regulation. While many researchers and advocates agree that government should play an affirmative role with respect to childhood obesity, they are very much divided over what that role should be. For example, although none of these acts has become law, eighty-six bills have been proposed regarding obesity since …

Stealing What's Free: Exploring Compensation To Body Parts Sources For Their Contribution To Profitable Biomedical Research, Jo-Anne Yau

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “At first blush, donating body parts in the name of science appears to be a beautiful solution to the problem of scarce body parts for research advancements. But a closer investigation reveals an ugly fact: the philanthropic donors—referred to as “Sources” in this article—are subjected to physical and financial exploitation.

Sources play a crucial and indispensable role in biotechnology. Without human body parts, most medical discoveries would not have been possible. Handsome profits can be derived from successful discoveries. But currently in the United States, when a Source provides body parts for research purposes, the researcher, research foundation, and …

Message Deleted? Resolving Physician-Patient E-Mail Through Contract Law, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the impact of e-mail on the physician-patient relationship, and how contract law can resolve the uncertainties incumbent in this nascent form of communication. Significantly, courts have yet to indicate when the physician-patient relationship begins by e-mail, or to what extent e-mail affects the duties of the relationship. Instead of waiting for judicial guidance, physicians and patients can employ specialized contracts to clarify the role that e-mail plays in their relationship. As a result, more physicians and patients will regard e-mail correspondence as a valuable means of communication, and a tool for improving the quality of health care …

One Solution For Managing Risks During Cutbacks In Residency Training Programs, Patrick Knott, Kathleen Ruroede

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professors Knott and Ruroede examine the risks associated with downsizing and elimination of physician residency training programs.

Procedural Choices In Regulatory Science, Sheila Jasanoff

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

This paper compares four approaches to using science in regulatory decision making - one very similar to the Science Court proposal. Professor Jasanoff argues generally that that proposal would be less useful than procedures more sensitive to the distinctive characteristics of regulatory science.

The Science Court: Reminiscence And Retrospective, Allan Mazur

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

A self-described "agnostic" on the merits of the Science Court proposal describes how he independently arrived at a similar notion and played a role in efforts to secure a major test of the proposal. Professor Mazur also analyzes university-based experiments structured around that model and concludes that the controversial "judges" are probably unnecessary to achieve his original objectives.

Consensus Development At Nih: What Went Wrong, Itzhak Jacoby

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

A close observer identifies the Science Court concept as inspiring consensus development conferences at the National Institutes of Health and describes the extent to which they have followed the model. Professor Jacoby also argues that, if the model were more closely followed, conference objectives would be better realized.