Law Commons^™

The Nonproliferation Mandate And The Appropriate Legal Standard In Health Care Bargaining Unit Determinations, Mary Esquivel Sciarra

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment examines the ongoing controversy over the appropriate legal standard to be applied in the determination of bargaining units in the health care industry. It reviews the basic law which governs the selection of appropriate units, discusses the legislative history of the 1974 amendments as they relate to bargaining units, and considers the intent of the accompanying admonition against unit proliferation. Implementation of the congressional mandate is examined in Board unit determinations. The Board's persistent use of the traditional industrial community of interest test is examined in light of circuit court decisions which have advocated new approaches. This Comment …

Mental Health Law: Major Issues, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Mental Health Law: Major Issues by David B. Wexler

Why Does Health Care Regulation Fail?, Robert C. Clark

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Redefining Government's Role In Health Care: Is A Dose Of Competition What The Doctor Should Order?, James F. Blumstein, Frank A. Sloan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout the 1970s, the two major political parties espoused some form of national health insurance. Faced with a fiscal squeeze, however, the Carter Administration gave national health insurance a relatively low priority.The political movement for comprehensive national health insurance rests on an ideological commitment that the federal government should underwrite the cost of providing universal access to medical services. The objective is essentially redistributive in nature: equitable concerns for the disadvantaged loom as the major focus. The selective expansion of coverage to encompass those identified as needy and worthy, but only those so identified, is anathema to those who traditionally …

Health Care, Markets, And Democratic Values, Rand E. Rosenblatt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Proposals to restructure the health care industry by increasing market competition currently have much political and academic momentum. Whether such proposals will work necessarily depends in part upon the criteria for success that are applied. Viewed from the market perspective, the question is whether procompetitive reforms will achieve their stated goals of containing costs, increasing efficiency, and enhancing consumer sovereignty over health care decisions. From a broader perspective, other questions are also of concern: whether increased competition in health care will actually improve people's health, and whether the operations and effects of health care competition are consistent with important values …

The Nonprofit Health Care Corporation Reform Act Of 1980, David L. Hollister, Patience A. Drake

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In recent years, Blue Cross/Blue Shield has been the subject of considerable controversy. Its critics charge the non-profit, tax-exempt corporation with being unduly secretive, arrogantly unresponsive to consumer interest and not vigorous in its cost containment efforts. These criticisms, along with a variety of other factors, led to the legislative reform I am here to talk to you about this evening.

Municipal Hospital Closings Under Title Vi: A Requirement Of Reasonable Justifications, Carol A. Cimkowski

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Municipal hospital closings in recent years are a by-product of two phenomena: 1) the dramatic increase in health care costs and, 2) the fiscal crisis facing many cities. The impact of this reduction in municipal services is felt most acutely by indigent inner city residents, who, because of municipal hospitals receive a portion of their funding from the federal government, have been able to challenge the closings of acute health care facilities as a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Whether plaintiffs can succeed in these suits depends upon the standard that federal courts will employ …

Regulation Through The Looking Glass: Hospitals, Blue Cross, And Certificate-Of-Need, Sallyanne Payton, Rhoda M. Powsner

Michigan Law Review

A clear focus on the commitment of the public health and hospital establishments to the large teaching hospital and their belief in rationalizing the health care system through community-based planning allows us to understand the ideas and institutions that have produced our present system of hospital regulation. It can also help us to understand the structure and behavior of the hospital industry and can illuminate current controversies over health care policy.

What follows is a narrative account of the development of regional planning and certificate-of-need legislation. As part of that story, we trace the evolution of the Blue Cross, explain …

Michigan's Nursing Home Reform Law, John D. Croll

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article examines Michigan's new nursing home reform law, which has been hailed as "landmark legislation" and as a model for the entire country. Part I examines the past failures of nursing home regulation and the need for reform. Part II analyzes the law's key provisions. Part III examines the weaknesses of certain enforcement measures. The article proposes the following improvements: (1) extension of the law's protection to residents of homes for the aged; (2) greater access to patients by approved organizations; (3) adoption of nurse-patient ratios; (4) improvement of inspection procedures; and (5) allowance for patients or their representatives …

Relative Value Guides And The Sherman Antitrust Act, David R. Simonsen, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The skyrocketing costs of health care services for the American people constitute a crisis of national importance.' The seriousness of this crisis is reflected in the attention that antitrust enforcement agencies of the federal government are giving to the health care industry. The agencies are responding, at least in part, to the common perception that these skyrocketing costs result as much from the restrictive trade practices of the health care industry as from the growing use of sophisticated technology and inflation. Competition is viewed as an antidote to increasing prices and antitrust laws as the vehicle by which federal agencies …

Due Process For Hill-Burton Assisted Facilities, Margaret L. Huddleston

Vanderbilt Law Review

The need to make health care available to all Americans does not justify the impairment of governmental contracts with Hill-Burton grantees. When substantial rights are greatly impaired by retroactive legislation, the need for a strong governmental justification becomes more acute. The impairment caused by the post-1947 Hill-Burton regulations, particularly the 1979 regulations, is neither reasonable nor necessary in light of the nature and extent to which they impair substantial private rights. The recent Hill-Burton regulations attempt to make health care more available to Americans,but the Government seeks to do this without additional financial expenditure on its part. Although the goal …

The Abortion-Funding Cases And Population Control: An Imaginary Lawsuit (And Some Reflections On The Uncertain Limits Of Reproductive Privacy), Susan Frelich Appleton

Michigan Law Review

Two issues are before us today: (I) the meaning of the term "medically necessary" in a public hospital's charter and (II) the constitutionality of state action that provides free medical treatment to indigent pregnant women seeking an abortion but denies them such assistance for prenatal care and childbirth. On the basis of recent Supreme Court authority, we find that such action violates neither the hospital's charter nor the United States Constitution.

The Hill-Burton Act, 1946-1980: Asynchrony In The Delivery Of Health Care To The Poor

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prisoners' Rights To Physical And Mental Health Care: A Modern Expansion Of The Eight Amendment's Cruel And Unusual Punishment Clause , Stuart Klein

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article addresses the need for appropriate mental health care in the prison system. Applying the eighth amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause, the article outlines the current system for medical care and psychological programs within jails and prisons. Focusing on the deficiencies of medical care, the article proposes adding support to the modernization of mental health care by recognizing that the eighth amendment applies not just to the terms of imprisonment but to the availability of care.

Health Care As A Human Right, Roger A. Ritvo, Edward A. Mckinney, Pranab Chatterjee

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Alternative Proposals For The Regulation Of An Emergency Strike In The Health Care Industry, Susan A. Jones

Vanderbilt Law Review

In order to give approximately 1,400,0001 health care employees the protection enjoyed by employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), Congress amended the Act in 1974 to make health care institutions "employers. Recognizing the public's dependence upon the unique services provided by health care facilities, Congress was hesitant, however, to extend coverage under the Act to health care employees without providing additional safe-guards. These safeguards are embodied in the following special provisions: (1) the extension of the sixty-day notice requirement for modification of an expiring contract to ninety days; (2) the creation of a thirty-day notice requirement of a …

The Health Professions Educational Assistance Act Of 1976: A New Prescription?, John J. Greene

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The 1976 Health Professions Educational Assistance Act is a new congressional effort to promote the rational development, distribution, and utilization of the health professions through financial incentives. The Act represents a compromise solution to the issues affecting the quality, quantity and distribution of health manpower. It targets the four major problems of the current system: (1) the shortage of health professionals; (2) the geographic maldistribution of health manpower; (3) the specialty maldistribution of physicians and dentists; and (4) the influx of foreign medical graduates into the United States. This comment examines the effectiveness of past legislative responses to these issues …

Regulation Of Electroconvulsive Therapy, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Regulation of ECT has generally focused on whether the patient or his representative effectively consented to the treatment. The highly intrusive nature of ECT and the unique circumstances of those patients who are likely to receive it create particularly difficult legal issues concerning the validity of the patient's consent. This Note will examine the various methods that are available to protect the rights of patients for whom ECT is proposed. After briefly explaining the nature of the therapy, the Note will discuss the efficacy of judicial remedies with respect to both competent and incompetent patients. It will argue that, because …

New York's Revised Nursing Home Legislation, Michael G. Mcgee

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note undertakes an analysis of the extensive package of nursing home legislation recently enacted in New York. First, specific regulations will be examined in relation to problems they are designed to remedy. Next, the note critically appraises three key, innovative provisions, making recommendations for implementation or revision of each. Finally, the broad changes needed to bring about lasting improvement of nursing care are discussed and a summary of pending legislation is provided.

The Impact Of Michigan's Health Maintenance Organization Act, Roger Alan Petzke

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Growing dissatisfaction with the shortcomings of the traditional system of health care has led to renewed interest in the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) concept in recent years. Although some HMO's have been operating in the United States for over forty years, conditions have been less than favorable to their growth and development. Major obstacles have been opposition from the medical profession, lack of public understanding about the nature and function of HMO's, and state laws restricting or prohibiting the establishment of HMO's. In order to create a more favorable legal climate and encourage HMO development, a number of states, including …

The Patient Rights Advocate: Redefining The Doctor-Patient Relationship In The Hospital Context, George J. Annas, Joseph M. Healey, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

To change the traditional doctor-patient relationship in the health facility context, one must begin with a complete statement defining the rights, both those legally recognized and those granted as a matter of hospital policy, that should be afforded to all patients. This document should then be made available to all patients and hospital staff and to members of the community in general. Its first purpose is educational. To perform its second purpose-the assurance that rights are afforded--a patient rights advocate system should be adopted in the hospital. The advocate must have the power to exercise, on behalf and at the …

The Fiscal Crisis Of New York City Voluntary Hospitals, John V. Connorton

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The cost of providing health care has been rising at an accelerated pace in recent years and hospital care took the largest share of this increase. Although not officially associated with the government, the voluntary health care institution reflects some of the characteristics of a governmental unit. It is traditionally exempt from taxes (although this is recently showing signs of erosion) and derives increasing proportions of its revenues from public funds. These funds are payment for services rendered to indigents at rates far below their costs. Hospitals have resorted to cutting costs other ways attempting to maximize efficiency of their …

Indigents, Hospital Admissions And Equal Protection, Charles S. Derousie

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The author surveyed ten hospitals in each of ten states, including hospitals of varying sizes and classifications. Five of the forty-five replies indicated the hospital did not admit all indigents in need of medical care. The primary reason given was that prospective patients not covered by hospital insurance or government programs such as Medicaid or Medicare were usually unable to produce a required preadmission deposit. This practice of requiring a preadmission deposit seems to be common.

Waltz & Inbau: Medical Jurisprudence, Marcus L. Plant

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Medical Jurisprudence by Jon R. Waltz and Fred E. Inbau

A Proposed Cure For The Intervention Blues, Lawrence E. Hard

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article does not purport to provide a study of the doctrine of subrogation and the merits of that doctrine in the context of insurance coverage. There are several difficult questions which could be raised as to the proper role of subrogation in insurance litigation. This article assumes the propriety of extending the right of subrogation to the type of medical and hospital payment plans offered by the Services and analyses the device of intervention as a method of enforcing the Services' right to contractual subrogation.

Non-Profit Hospital Service Plans, Leo A. Simpson

Cleveland State Law Review

Hospital service plans fulfill a vital social need. In view of the continuing support and apparently expanding activities of the plans, it is well to understand their legal nature. At the present time problems are arising that could not have been foreseen 25 years ago. The favorable treatment which hospital service plans have received under the law should be continued so long as the plans continue realistically to meet these problems as they have in the past.