Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Dying In Isolation: Public Health Implications Of Transportation And Burial Of Human Remains During A Pandemic A Fifty State Survey, Christopher Ogolla

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

No-One Receives Psychiatric Treatment In A Squad Car, Judy A. Clausen, Joanmarie Davoli

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Shadows Of Life: Medicaid's Failure Of Health Care's Moral Test, Barak D. Richman, Kushal T. Kadakia, Shivani A. Shah

Faculty Scholarship

North Carolina Medicaid covers one-fifth of the state’s population and makes up approximately one-third of the budget. Yet the state has experienced increasing costs and worsening health outcomes over the past decade, while socioeconomic disparities persist among communities. In this article, the authors explore the factors that influence these trends and provide a series of policy lessons to inform the state’s current reform efforts following the recent approval of North Carolina’s Section 1115 waiver by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The authors used health, social, and financial data from the state Department of Health and Human Services, the …

Under Containment: Preempting State Ebola Quarantine Regulations, Eang L. Ngov

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Do The Elderly Fare In Medical Malpractice Litigation, Before And After Tort Reform? Evidence From Texas, Myungho Paik, Bernard S. Black, David A. Hyman, William M. Sage, Charles M. Silver

Faculty Scholarship

The elderly account for a disproportionate share of medical spending, but little is known about how they are treated by the medical malpractice system, or how tort reform affects elderly claimants. We compare paid medical malpractice claims brought by elderly plaintiffs in Texas during 1988–2009 to those brought by adult non-elderly plaintiffs. Controlling for healthcare utilization (based on inpatient days), elderly paid claims rose from about 20% to about 40% of the adult non-elderly rate by the early 2000s. Mean and median payouts per claim also converged, although the elderly were far less likely to receive large payouts. Tort reform …

Brand New Law! The Need To Market Health Care Reform, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The most serious problem with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not its contents but its packaging. Because it requires significant departures from business as usual in health insurance, health care delivery, and health behavior, the ACA is unlikely to succeed unless Americans feel a shared stake in its success. Unfortunately, the new law has been branded only by its opponents. Neither the Obama administration nor its congressional allies have effectively communicated the law’s key elements to the public. Most surprisingly, the groundbreaking program of near-universal health coverage the ACA creates does not even have a name. …

Might The Fact That 90% Of Americans Live Within 15 Miles Of A Wal-Mart Help Achieve Universal Health Care?, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The subject of this Essay is the retail medical clinic movement. Retail medical clinics-a few hundred exist at the time of this publication-are typically located in national or regional chains of discount stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets. 1 News articles describing this new phenomenon in American health care tend to examine its viability as a business. The symposium for which this Essay was prepared is devoted to the "Massachusetts Health Plan," that state's pioneering effort (in the current political cycle) to achieve near-universal health insurance for its residents. Accordingly, this Essay situates the retail medical clinic movement in overall "health policy," …

Do Defendants Pay What Juries Award? Post-Verdict Haircuts In Texas Medical Malpractice Cases, 1988–2003, David A. Hyman, Bernard Black, Kathryn Zeiler, Charles Silver, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Legal scholars, legislators, policy advocates, and the news media frequently use jury verdicts to draw conclusions about the performance of the tort system. However, actual payouts can differ greatly from verdicts. We report evidence on post-verdict payouts from the most comprehensive longitudinal study of matched jury verdicts and payouts. Using data on all insured medical malpractice claims in Texas from 1988–2003 in which the plaintiff received at least $25,000 (in 1988 dollars) following a jury trial, we find that most jury awards received “haircuts.” Seventy-five percent of plaintiffs received a payout less than the adjusted verdict (jury verdict plus prejudgment …

Public Medical Malpractice Insurance: An Analysis Of State-Operated Patient Compensation Funds, Frank A. Sloan, Carrie A. Mathews, Christopher J. Conover, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Compared to major tort and insurance reforms, PCFs have received virtually no attention by scholars. With an exception or two, they are not a major focus of public policy debate either. Because they are small organizations and there have been lengthy periods in which medical malpractice markets are quiescent, they have not attracted much scrutiny. Given a lack of quantitative evidence, our evaluation depended on qualitative evidence. Yet PCFs address the fundamental issues of medical malpractice that have led to reoccurring crises in the availability of medical malpractice insurance coverage and in its premiums for such coverage. As such, PCFs …

Health Care, Technology And Federalism, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

The regulation of health care has traditionally been the province of the states, most often grounded in the police power. In Colonial times, this division of responsibility was a rational response to the technological level of the eighteenth century, although even in the youth of the Republic some health and safety regulation required national and international action. With the growth of distancecompression technology, the increase in mobility of goods and services, and a significant federal financial role in health care, the grip of the police power on the regulation of health care has been weakened. Discussion of the police power …

Municipal Home Rule In New York: Tobacco Control At The Local Level,, Laura Hermer

Faculty Scholarship

This paper will examine the nature and scope of the ability of both municipalities and local public health departments to govern the local sale, use, availability and advertising of tobacco products in the context of New York state law and the recent Multistate Settlement Agreement.

Part I will begin with a description of municipalities in New York and a summary of the provisions of article 9 of the New York Constitution and section 10 of the state Municipal Home Rule Law, which delimit spheres in which municipalities may act without state interference and others in which the state may act …

Staffing National Health Care Reform: A Role For Advanced Practice Nurses, Linda H. Aiken, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Expanding access and coverage while containing costs can only be accomplished by getting more health care value for our money. Two facts about our current system make this seem possible. First, the currently uninsured are not costless. Providing stop-gap health care to those who lack health insurance is extremely expensive -- people without formal coverage cannot afford preventive services, delay treatment of illness and face substantial barriers to reaching appropriate providers. When they receive care, it is often degrading, usually complicated and costly, and more than occasionally too late. The cost of this "uncompensated" care is borne by all of …