Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Hard Choices And Deficient Choosers, Mark Kelman

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Healthtech: How Blockchain Can Simplify Healthcare Compliance, Kathryn M. Bennett

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

This Note broadly explores solutions to modern-day accessibility and security problems latent in electronic health records. Specifically, this Note discusses HIPAA and HITECH, the current law in place, and how blockchain technology can be used to fix the accessibility and security problems of current electronic health records. This Note proposes that blockchain technology can help a healthcare industry struggling to adhere to the current rule of law in an era of Big Data. Further, Blockchain technology can help individual consumers, particularly those with significant health issues, obtain the best possible medical care while simultaneously keeping their private and sensitive information ...

Negligent Disruption Of Genetic Planning: Carving Out A New Tort Theory To Address Novel Questions Of Liability In An Era Of Reproductive Innovation, Tracey Tomlinson

Fordham Law Review Online

This Essay will address current concerns pertaining to ART-related negligence, and ultimately recommends the adoption of a new tort— negligent disruption of genetic planning (NDGP). This tort would enable plaintiffs to recover damages when an ART clinic’s negligent actions thwart reproductive planning, while simultaneously balancing the serious moral and ethical questions that arise in these situations. This argument proceeds in three Parts. Part I discusses the technological evolution of ART and gives examples of ART-related negligence cases that have occurred in the United States. Part II lays out the current U.S. tort remedies relied on by plaintiffs in ...

Biting The Hands That Feed “The Alligators”: A Case Study In Morbid Obesity Extremes, End-Of-Life Care, And Prohibitions On Harming And Accelerating The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

Obesity, recognized as a disease in the U.S. and at times as a terminal illness due to associated medical complications, is an American epidemic according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), American Heart Association (“AHA”), and other authorities. More than one third of Americans (39.8% of adults and 18.5% of children) are medically obese. This article focuses on cases of “extreme morbid obesity” (“EMO”)—situations in which death is imminent without aggressive medical interventions, and bariatric surgery is the only treatment option with a realistic possibility of success. Bariatric surgeries themselves are very high ...

The U.S. Science And Technology “Triple Threat”: A Regulatory Treatment Plan For The Nation’S Addiction To Prescription Opioids, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

No abstract provided.

The "Uncontroversial" Controversy In Compelled Commercial Disclosures, Lauren Fowler

Fordham Law Review

Federal and state administrative agencies increasingly advance public health goals through the use of mandatory disclosures, like warning labels on cigarettes, that are intended to both inform and influence consumer decisions. However, the standard for determining whether these requirements violate a commercial speaker’s First Amendment rights is unsettled. In Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a test that defers to the government’s determination that the compelled disclosure of “factual and uncontroversial information” is justified. Since Zauderer was decided, lower courts have disagreed about the meaning of “uncontroversial.” A recent Supreme Court case ...

Bloody Hell: How Insufficient Access To Menstrual Hygiene Products Creates Inhumane Conditions For Incarcerated Women, Lauren Shaw

Texas A&M Law Review

For thousands of incarcerated women in the United States, dealing with menstruation is a nightmare. Across the country, many female prisoners lack sufficient access to feminine hygiene products, which negatively affects their health and rehabilitation. Although the international standards for the care of female prisoners have been raised in attempt to eliminate this issue, these stan- dards are often not followed in the United States. This Comment argues that denial of feminine hygiene products to female prisoners violates human de- cency. Additionally, this Comment considers possible constitutional violations caused by this denial, reviews current efforts to correct this problem, and ...

Beyond The Ethical Boundaries Of Solidarity: Increasing Vaccination Rates Through Mandatory Education To Solidarity, Nili Karako- Eyal Dr.

Texas A&M Law Review

Mandatory vaccination laws require children to be vaccinated against certain communicable diseases to attend school. These laws also provide exemptions to school vaccination requirements.1 All states exempt children from vaccination requirements for medical reasons, and most states also provide an exemption for religious and/or other personal reasons.2 Seven states include an educational component in their religious or philosophical exemption process, requiring that parents receive information regarding the benefits of vaccination and the risks of not being vaccinated.3 Of these seven states, five require that information regarding the social benefits of vaccination will be provided to parents ...

Safe Injection Sites And The Federal "Crack House" Statute, Alex Kreit

Boston College Law Review

Safe injection sites have become the next battlefield in the conflict between state and federal drug laws. A safe injection site is a place where injection drug users can self-administer drugs in a controlled environment under medical supervision. They have been operating in other countries, including Canada, for decades, and a wealth of evidence suggests that they can help to reduce overdose deaths. To date, however, no United States city or state has sanctioned a safe injection site. Until recently, safe injection sites were politically untenable, seen as a form of surrender in the war on drugs. This dynamic, however ...

The Facts Of Stigma: What's Missing From The Procedural Due Process Of Mental Health Commitment, Alexandra S. Bornstein

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

This is the first systematic review of federal, judicial opinions that engage the stigma of mental health commitment in the context of procedural due process. In 1979, in Addington v. Texas, the Supreme Court held that the stigma, or adverse social consequences, of civil commitment is relevant to the procedural due process analysis. The following year, in Vitek v. Jones, the Court held that the stigmatizing consequences of a transfer from a prison to a mental health facility, coupled with mandatory treatment, triggered procedural protections.

Righting Research Wrongs: An Empirical Study Of How U.S. Institutions Resolve Grievances Involving Human Subjects, Kristen Underhill

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

Tens of millions of people enroll in research studies in the United States every year, making human subjects research a multi-billion-dollar industry in the U.S. alone. Research carries risks: although many harms are inevitable, some also arise from errors or mistreatment by researchers, and the history of research ethics is in many ways a history of scandal. Despite regulatory efforts to remedy these abuses, injured subjects nonetheless have little recourse to U.S. courts. In the absence of tort remedies for research-related injuries, the only venue for resolving such disputes is through alternative dispute resolution (ADR)—or more commonly ...

The Problem Of Intra-Personal Cost, Brian Galle

Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics

"Externalities," or harms to others, provide a standard justification for government intervention in the private market. There is less agreement over whether government is justified in correcting "internalities," or harms we inflict on our own health or well-being. While some of the internality dispute is philosophical, some is practical. Critics suggest government lacks information to regulate internalities, and that any intervention would inefficiently distort a private market for self-help. This Article argues that these critiques of regulation overlook well-established tools of externality regulation, as well as a burgeoning literature on the measurement of internalities.

The Ever-Changing Landscape Of Informed Consent And Whether The Obligation To Explain A Procedure To The Patient May Be Delegated, Samuel D. Hodge, Maria Zambrano Steinhaus

Arkansas Law Review

Informed consent is an integral part of the shared decision making process and requires a patient be informed of the benefits, risks and alternatives to a medical procedure. This information, which requirement has been codified into the law and practice of every healthcare provider, helps a patient decide whether to proceed with the recommended treatment plan. Informed consent has its foundation in the ethical notion of patient autonomy and fundamental human rights. After all, it is the patient’s decision to determine what may be done to his or her body and to ascertain the risks and benefits before undertaking ...

A Prescription For Charity Care: How National Medical Debt Ills Can Be Alleviated By Integrating State Financial Assistance Policies Into The Nonprofit Tax Exemption, Margarita Kutsin

Seattle University Law Review

Despite having the most expensive healthcare system in the world, the United States has been consistently ranked as having the worst system in terms of equity, efficiency, and healthcare outcomes among industrialized nations. The effects of these systemic issues are grounded in the patient experience as nearly forty-four percent of individuals have forgone recommended treatments and thirty-two percent have reported that they were unable to afford a prescription due to the high cost, according to a study conducted in 2018. Health is sacred, and financial circumstances should not determine the difference between treatment and illness, or life and death. “Financial ...

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The "Art" Of Future Life: Rethinking Personal Injury Law For The Negligent Deprivation Of A Patient's Right To Procreation In The Age Of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Erika N. Auger

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Supervised Injection Facilities: Legal And Policy Reforms, Lawrence O. Gostin, James G. Hodge, Chelsea L. Gulinson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 70 000 deaths from drug overdoses occurred in 2017, including prescription and illicit opioids, representing a 6-fold increase since 1999. Innovative harm-reduction solutions are imperative. Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) create safe places for drug injection, including overdose prevention, counseling, and treatment referral services. Supervised injection facilities neither provide illicit drugs nor do their personnel inject users. Supervised injection facilities are effective in reducing drug-related mortality, morbidity, and needle-borne infections. Yet their lawfulness remains uncertain. The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently threatened criminal prosecution for SIF operators, medical personnel ...

Fighting Novel Diseases Amidst Humanitarian Crises, Lawrence O. Gostin, Neil R. Sircar, Eric A. Friedman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Humanitarian crises are becoming more prevalent and, frequently, more complex, in zones of mis-governance, lack of government presence, and even active conflict, marked by public mistrust and insecurity. The WHO and other health emergency responders lack the capacities and mandate to adequately respond. The current Ebola outbreak in an area of an active insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is just such a crisis. The State Department has banned U.S. personnel from the outbreak zone due to safety concerns, leaving the population feeling abandoned, potentially increasing the threat to the few brave health workers who remain.

We ...

Why Healthcare Companies Should Be(Come) Benefit Corporations, Yaniv Heled, Liza Vertinsky, Cass Brewer

Boston College Law Review

Our healthcare system is broken. Despite spending far more on healthcare per capita than any other country, health outcomes in the United States are relatively poor. There is a pervasive disconnect within the healthcare system between private incentives to develop and provide healthcare products and services and public health needs. Mainstream proposals for how to fix the system have focused on changes in regulation, incentive schemes, consumer behavior, and competition in healthcare markets. All of these proposals share the assumption that the development and provision of healthcare products and services will remain primarily in the hands of traditional corporations and ...

A “Natural” Stand Off Between The Food And Drug Administration And The Courts: The Rise In Food-Labeling Litigation & The Need For Regulatory Reform, Amy-Lee Goodman

Boston College Law Review

Faced with the health and financial toll from escalating rates of chronic disease, consumers are demanding healthier food products and increased transparency regarding the ingredients in their food. Food labels provide the primary means for businesses to communicate with customers about their food products. In response to consumer demand, food companies are stocking grocery store shelves with products claiming to be wholesome, “natural” and healthy. Yet, many of these products are not as healthy or natural as purported. Although both consumers and food manufacturers place importance on the term “natural,” the Food and Drug Administration has refused to define the ...