Law Commons^™

For Health's Sake Be Not Colorblind, Ruth Hackford-Peer

Ruth Hackford-Peer

The United States’ past ideology of overt state-sanctioned racism has been replaced by a covert, seemingly race-neutral ideology. This Article looks at the history of racism in the United States and traces the recent shift in ideology and discourse about race, positing that the discourse of “colorblindness” powerfully maintains the racial status quo while purporting to advance race neutrality. Then, using affirmative action as the lens from which to view these shifts in ideology and discourse, this Article analyzes racial disparities in health and healthcare. It highlights some of the health consequences people of color face because they live a …

Intellectual Property And Public Health – A White Paper, Ryan G. Vacca, Jim Chen, Jay Dratler Jr., Tom Folsom, Timothy Hall, Yaniv Heled, Frank Pasquale, Elizabeth Reilly, Jeff Samuels, Kathy Strandburg, Kara Swanson, Andrew Torrance, Katharine Van Tassel

Ryan G. Vacca

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 …

Concerns Regarding The Relationship Between Electronic Health Records And Malpractice Claims, Frederick J. White Iii, William P. Coleman Iii

Frederick J White III

No abstract provided.

A Submission To The New Zealand Government On The Plain Packaging Of Tobacco Products, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis submission draws upon a number of pieces of research and policy papers on the plain packaging of tobacco products including:1. Becky Freeman, Simon Chapman, and Matthew Rimmer, 'The Case for the Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products' (2008) 103 (4) Addiction 580-590.2. Matthew Rimmer, 'A Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee on the Trade Marks Amendment (Tobacco Plain Packaging) Bill (Cth)', September 2011, https://senate.aph.gov.au/submissions/comittees/viewdocument.aspx?id=dabfcd75-9807-493f-bc99-4a7506bf493b3A. Matthew Rimmer, 'Tobacco's Mad Men Threaten Public Health', The Conversation, 23 September 2011, http://theconversation.edu.au/tobaccos-mad-men-threaten-public-health-34503B. Matthew Rimmer, 'Big Tobacco's Box Fetish: Plain Packaging at the High Court', The Conversation, 20 April 2012, https://theconversation.edu.au/big-tobaccos-box-fetish-plain-packaging-at-the-high-court-65183C. Matthew …

Bending The Health Cost Curve: The Promise And Peril Of The Independent Payment Advisory Board, Ann Marie Marciarille, James Bradford Delong

Ann Marie Marciarille

Underlying today’s and the future’s health-care reform debate is a consensus that America’s health-care financing system is in a slow-moving but deep crisis: care appears substandard in comparison with other advanced industrial countries, and relative costs are exploding beyond all reasonable measures. The Obama Administration’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) attempts to grapple with both of these problems. One of ACA’s key instrumentalities is the Independent Payment Advisory Board—the IPAB, designed to discover and authorize ways to reduce the rate of growth of Medicare and other categories of health spending. The IPAB is a peril. Expert boards to …

The Trial That Never Happened: Josef Mengele And The Twins Of Auschwitz, Michael A. Grodin M.D., Eva M. Kor, Susan Benedict Dsn

Michael A. Grodin M.D.

This is the first publication in English of a Mock Trial conducted in abstentia of Dr. Joseph Mengele the physician at the Auschwitz Nazi Death Camp. This important historical event documented the Crimes Against Humanity carried out by Dr. Mengele on the Twins of Auschwitz. The testimony was to be used in a International War Crimes Tribunal that never happened.

Revenue-Cycle Management And Reimbursement: The Impact Of Health Law And Health Reform On Providers, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

Healthcare payment systems are complex and difficult to administer. Over the years, providers have developed a complex process, called revenue-cycle management, for administering their interactions with payers operating under various payment systems. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will have a significant impact on payment systems—as will other recent reform measures. This paper contains primers on revenue-cycle management, health insurance systems, medical claims, claim coding, electronic-data interchange (EDI), claims processing, and public and private reimbursement methods for hospitals and physicians. But its focus is on the impact recent healthcare reform initiatives have had and are likely to …

An Open Letter To The Citizens Of Northwest Louisiana, Frederick J. White Iii

Frederick J White III

We, the undersigned physicians, want to publicly address our community regarding the health system debate in Congress. This is a historic time, and decisions made in these next days will impact you as citizens and as patients for generations. We recognize that the health system needs change. But the path that the Congress has taken is unwise and unnecessary. And although the American Medical Association has endorsed both the House and Senate bills, (1) we want to be clear—the AMA does not speak for us on these issues.

Will Americans Embrace Single-Payer Health Insurance: The Intractable Barriers Of Inertia, Free Market, And Culture, Susan Channick

Susan Channick

This article posits that the adoption of single-payer health insurance is effectively impossible in the United States. In spite of evidence that a single-payer system might be substantially more efficient and inexpensive than the complex, administratively-burdened multi-payer system we currently have, the probability that it can be part of health care reform is remote at best. The article identifies a number of reasons that a single-payer health insurance system cannot succeed ranging from inertia, path dependence, the expense of Medicare, the American belief in looking to the private sector for solutions to even social problems, the fear of big government …

Federal Malpractice In Indian Country And The "Law Of The Place": A Re-Examination Of Williams V. United States Under Existing Law Of The Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians, J. Matthew Martin

J. Matthew Martin

This paper analyzes the law applicable in malpractice cases occurring within Indian Country and brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, applying the “Law of the Place.” In particular, this paper argues that the law of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, including the customs and traditions of the Tribe, should have been applied by the Federal Courts in lieu of the law of North Carolina in Williams v. United States. he paper concludes by suggesting that a complete “laboratory” of Federalism should include the application of the laws of the respective Tribes where Federal medical negligence occurs.