Law Commons^™

Health Care: Why Jurisdiction Matters, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

Congress’s enactment of comprehensive healthcare reform legislation last year was the culmination of one round of an intense debate that continues today. The second round began the same day that the first round ended, when President Obama signed the legislation. In this second round, the locus of debate has shifted from Congress to the courts, which are processing a slew of lawsuits filed immediately after enactment.

One of the most prominent is Virginia v. Sebelius. The lawsuit presents on its face a prominent and critically important question of federalism: Did Congress exceed the limits of its enumerated legislative powers by …

Bounty Hunters And Whistleblowers: Constitutional Concerns For False Claims Actions After Passage Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act Of 2010, A.G. Harmon

Scholarly Articles

Recently, the False Claims Act (FCA) was amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA). In a five-word alteration, the PPACA has greatly expanded the reach of the statute, in terms of how a case must be proven, who has to prove it, and what circumstances, if any, will bar the proceeding from going forward." Additionally, new constitutional and policy concerns stem from the increased governmental discretion in deciding which suits can and cannot proceed.6 The problems resulting from the government's expanded discretion go to the very nature of qui tam actions themselves.

This article will …

Refractory Pain, Existential Suffering, And Palliative Care: Releasing An Unbearable Lightness Of Being, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

Since the beginning of the hospice movement in 1967, “total pain management” has been the declared goal of hospice care. Palliating the whole person’s physical, psycho-social, and spiritual states or conditions is central to managing the pain which induces suffering. At the end-stage of life, an inextricable component of the ethics of adjusted care requires recognition of a fundamental right to avoid cruel and unusual suffering from terminal illness. This Article urges wider consideration and use of terminal sedation, or sedation until death, as an efficacious palliative treatment and as a reasonable medical procedure in order to safeguard the “right” …