Law Commons^™

Relating Diagnosis-Related Groups: What Germany And The United States Can Learn From Each Other About Acute-Care Payment Systems, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

In recent years, several countries have adopted diagnosis-related group (DRG) payment systems modeled after the system Medicare uses to reimburse providers for acute-care inpatient treatment. This paper compares the Medicare DRG system with the German DRG system and suggests improvements that might help both systems. First, Germany should proceed carefully in its attempt to reduce the length of hospital visits because its universal payment mechanism cannot shift costs to the private sector so inadequate payment could degrade the quality of care. Second, because both countries struggle with incorporating new treatments and technologies into their payment systems, they should both consider …

A Look At The Constitutional Implications Of Retrospective Laws: The Case Of The False Claims Act, Monica P. Navarro

Monica P. Navarro

The retrospective effect of the False Claims Act has triggered constitutional challenges resting on the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution and dividing the courts on the outcome of the constitutional question and the applicable legal framework for resolving the issue. The article reviews the False Claims Act, as well as the legal frameworks available for resolving such a constitutional challenge.

Giving Life To The Dead: The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act's Impact On Freedom Of Contract As A Substantive Due Process Right, Jesse D. Kershner Mr.

Jesse D Kershner Mr.

This article examines the constitutional implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care of 2010. Particularly, whether the substantive due process right of freedom of contract is recognized yet again as a fundamental right. This paper argues while Muller and West Coast Hotel overturned Lochner procedurally, the substance of the fundamental right concerning contracts still exists; specifically the notion that citizens have a right to be free from forced contracts.

Giving Life To The Dead: The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act's Impact On Freedom Of Contract As A Substantive Due Process Right, Jesse D. Kershner Mr.

Jesse D Kershner Mr.

This article examines the constitutional implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care of 2010. Particularly, whether the substantive due process right of freedom of contract is recognized yet again as a fundamental right. This paper argues while Muller and West Coast Hotel overturned Lochner procedurally, the substance of the fundamental right concerning contracts still exists; specifically the notion that citizens have a right to be free from forced contracts.

New Frontiers Of Reprogenetics: Snp Profile Collection And Banking And The Resulting Duties In Medical Malpractice, Issues In Property Rights Of Genetic Materials, And Liabilities In Genetic Privacy., Stephanie Sgambati

Stephanie Sgambati

ABSTRACT

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) represent the portions of our genetic makeup where human differ from each other. Mapping an individual’s profile creates a DNA fingerprint entirely unique to that individual. The primary purpose for the creation of SNP profiles has been validation of medical techniques used in reproductive medicine that require researchers to be able to definitively determine which embryo makes which baby- thus matching DNA fingerprints from infants to those from embryos. In spite of this seemingly narrow use, the potential value of the information contained in the SNP profile is enormous.

In this paper, I explore how …

Canned For Medical Cannabis: Terminating Employees For Lawful, At-Home Use Of Medical Cannabis For Palliative Care Amounts To Disability Discrimination And Chills Their Liberty Interest To Pain Relief, Elizabeth M. Votra

Elizabeth M Votra

Although qualified California citizens may lawfully use medical cannabis, there are no protective regulations in the employment arena for those who are medical cannabis patients. Upon examination of the California Supreme Court case Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications (medical cannabis patients cannot succeed on grounds of wrongful termination claims when fired for their at-home use of medical cannabis) and the United States Supreme Court case Washington v. Glucksberg (deeply rooted liberty interests in pain relief qualify for protection), I show that there is a disconnect between what the voters clearly wanted-as described in the Compassionate Use Act-and the current state of …

Federalizing Embryo Transfers: Taming The Wild West Of Reproductive Medicine?, Judith F. Daar

Judith F Daar

This article addresses the oft-spoken urban myth that the field of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a wholly unregulated medical subspecialty, leaving cowboy physicians to abuse vulnerable patients and disregard the well-being of ART-induced offspring. The birth of octoplets in January 2009 fueled this myth and launched a campaign to regulate the field by restricting the number of embryos allowable for transfer in any single IVF cycle. This article critiques the merits of a federal law codifying embryo transfer limits in the provision of infertility care. Drafting a federal embryo transfer law is easy enough, but assuring enforcement by regulators …

Catching Flies With Vinegar: A Critique Of The Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Self-Disclosure Program, Jean W. Veilleux Prof.

Jean W Veilleux Prof.

The article argues that the current approach of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enforcement of the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act (the “Stark Law”) is unnecessarily punitive and discourages health care providers from self-disclosing even very minor violations of the Stark Law. The article suggests a number of specific changes to encourage provider self-disclosure and proposes that CMS create a demonstration project under the authority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to test the reforms. A demonstration project provides the perfect vehicle to prove that increased …

Federalizing Embryo Transfers: Taming The Wild West Of Reproductive Medicine?, Judith F. Daar

Judith F Daar

This article addresses the oft-spoken urban myth that the provision of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) is a wholly unregulated medical subspecialty, leaving cowboy physicians to abuse vulnerable patients and disregard the well-being of ART-induced offspring. The birth of octoplets in January 2009 fueled this myth and launched a campaign to regulate the field by restricting the number of embryos allowable for transfer in any single IVF cycle. This article critiques the merits of a federal law codifying embryo transfer limits in the provision of infertility care. Drafting a federal embryo transfer law is easy enough, but assuring enforcement by regulators …

Safeguarding The Safeguards: The Extension Of Structural Protection To Non-Fundamental Liberties, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

As the lawsuits challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have evolved, one feature of the litigation has proven especially rankling to the legal academy: the incorporation of substantive libertarian concerns into the structural federalism analysis. The breadth and depth of scholarly criticism is surprising, however, given that judges frequently choose indirect methods, including structural and process-based methods of the kinds at issue in the ACA litigation, for protecting substantive constitutional values. Indeed, indirection in the protection of constitutional liberties is a well-known and well-theorized strategy, which one scholar recently termed “semisubstantive review” and another recently theorized as …

Coding For Life--Should Any Entity Have The Exclusive Right To Use And Sell Isolated Dna, Douglas L. Rogers

Douglas L. Rogers

Myriad Genetics, Inc. ("Myriad") obtained patents in the 1990's on two "isolated" human breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes ("BRCA"). Myriad did not list all the isolated sequences it claims to have a right to monopolize, but instead claims a patent on the physical phenomena itself -- all DNA segments that code for the BRCA1 polypeptide, even the sequences Myriad has not identified and even someone else in the future creates or isolates the sequences through a method or methods not contemplated by Myriad.

An impressive array of non-profit medical societies, doctors and patients sued to have the Myriad patents …

Safeguarding The Safeguards: The Aca Litigation And The Extension Of Structural Protection To Non-Fundamental Liberties, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

This article confronts and challenges an emerging scholarly consensus that criticizes the hybridization of substantive and structural arguments in the litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Although there is no doubt that the ACA plaintiffs have requested and the ACA judges have provided a hybrid substantive-structural holding, there is nothing at all unusual about this indirect strategy for protecting constitutional liberty interests; it is a well-known and well-theorized strategy, which one scholar recently termed “semisubstantive review.” The article considers three possible distinctions between the ACA case and the ordinary case of semisubstantive review, and concludes that …

Be Fruitful And Multiply, By Any Means Necessary: The Time Has Come To Recognize And Enforce Gestational Surrogacy Agreements, Paul G. Arshagouni

Paul G Arshagouni

The practice of surrogacy, when one woman carries a child to term on behalf of someone else, has been with us for millennia, with early references found in Greek mythology and the Bible. With the advent of in vitro fertilization just over years 30 ago, surrogacy became option for couples and individuals who could not carry a child to term but did not want to pursue adoption. In the early days of modern surrogacy, states had little or no statutes or case law giving guidance as to the enforceability of surrogacy agreements. That changed with the seminal cases of Baby …

Over My Dead Body: The Right To Posthumous Bodily Integrity And Implications Of Whose Right It Is, Hilary Young

Hilary Young

This article examines laws that allow people to decide what will happen to their bodies after death, referred to as laws protecting posthumous bodily integrity. It asks whose rights they intend to protect: the rights-holders could consist only of living individuals whose bodies will become the corpses at issue or could include the dead themselves. Whether rights to posthumous bodily integrity belong only to the living or survive death leads to three types of insight. First, the reasons for protecting posthumous bodily integrity are different depending on who the rights-bearers are. Second, to the extent that some laws are more …

Arbitration Agreements Used By Nursing Homes: An Empirical Study And Critique Of At&T Mobility V. Concepcion, Lisa Tripp

Lisa Tripp

Although the health care industry had historically been one of the fields that had not embraced pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements, that reluctance appears to be changing in at least one sector of the health care field. An examination of admission contracts used by North Carolina nursing homes and telephone survey of North Carolina nursing homes revealed that 43 percent of nursing homes now incorporate pre-dispute binding arbitration provisions into their admission contracts. All of the major nursing home chains operating in North Carolina use pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements in at least some of their facilities, while smaller operators use them …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity George P. Smith, II Matthew Saunig Abstract: Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk. This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

Re-Conceptualizing The Law Of Nuisance Through A Theory Of Economic Captivity, George P. Smith

George P Smith

Re-conceptualizing the Law of Nuisance through a Theory of Economic Captivity

George P. Smith, II

Matthew Saunig

Abstract:

Generally, the fact that a plaintiff comes to a nuisance is not a per se defense to a nuisance action. This defense is viewed in many jurisdictions as but a factor in determining whether a defendant’s conduct is an unreasonable interference with use and enjoyment of a neighbor’s property. In principle, two other affirmative defenses are—although not often allowed in practice by the courts—found in contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.

This Article seeks to develop a theory of economic captivity …

In Defense Of The Shuckers: Enhanced Consumer Warnings And Assumption Of The Risk, Not Forced Post-Harvest Processing, As The Proper Remedy For Raw Oyster Toxicity, Scott T. Schmidt

Scott Schmidt

Oysters are a popular culinary delight. Oyster connoisseurs ("ostreaphiles") thoroughly enjoy consuming the bivalves in a multitude of ways, including fried, baked, and raw. A large portion of oysters in the U.S. come from the Gulf of Mexico. However, the FDA has proposed regulations which would make it difficult to consume living raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico during certain times of the year. The Vibrio family of bacteria is the leading cause of raw shellfish toxicity. It occurs naturally in seawater, and is more heavily concentrated in warmer months. It is known to cause several illnesses and death …