Law Commons^™

Missouri's Innocent Citizens: An Examination Of Missouri's Response To Domestic Violence Incidents Against Children And Teens, Keith P. Freie

Keith P Freie

In 2010 the Missouri Attorney’s General’s Office created a Domestic Violence Task Force for the purpose of analyzing Missouri’s Domestic Violence laws. In 2011, the Missouri General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 320 which included several changes to Missouri’s domestic violence laws stemming from several recommendations from the Attorney General’s Task Force. While Missouri’s 2011 domestic violence law is a comprehensive solution to the many unaddressed needs of child and teen domestic violence victims, additional solutions need to be considered to fully address the problem. Those solutions may include creating special domestic violence and child abuse courts and creating educational programs …

A Health Care Autopsy, Marc Gans

Marc Gans

This paper analyzes each of the factors responsible for the rapid rise in health care spending in this country. This includes an in-depth analysis of prescription drug expenditures, which has been the fastest growing component of health care costs. Lastly, this paper will address whether there is anything particularly unique about health care spending in California.

"Libertarian Paternalism And The Danger Of Nudging Consumers", Alberto R. Salazar V.

Alberto R. Salazar V.

Consumer law and policy have sought to protect consumers through various forms of information disclosure. This has, however, failed in several areas. A central reason for such a failure has been irrational consumer behavior. Libertarian paternalism, a currently influential view in the US and the UK, attempts to capture the many ways in which market behaviour can be irrational and suggests nudging consumers towards self-interest. This has important implications for consumer protection policies. In the area of healthy eating, rather than insisting on nutrition labeling and other legislative interventions, libertarian paternalism claims that nudging consumers towards healthy food is likely …

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.

The Change In Knowledge Proposal: Repairing Preemption Doctrine In Medical Products Liability, Yite John Lu

Yite J Lu

This Article proposes a new rule that would allow the FDA to achieve the best balance of medical product availability and safety without interference from tort law when the agency has adequately reviewed the safety science. After an analysis of the FDA’s competency to review, and manufacturers’ ability to hide, safety concerns, this Article argues that FDA review is adequate during the initial approval process, but the agency cannot adequately respond to newly acquired safety information that arises post-market. To take advantage of this finding, the change in knowledge proposal would require tort plaintiffs to show a change in the …

Public Health Legal Services: A New Vision, David I. Schulman, Ellen Lawton, Paul R. Tremblay, Randye Retkin, Megan Sandel

Paul R. Tremblay

In recent years, the medical profession has begun to collaborate more and more with lawyers in order to accomplish important health objectives for patients. That collaboration invites a revisioning of legal services delivery models and of public health constructs, leading to a concept we develop in this article, and call "public health legal services." The phrase encompasses those legal services provided by non-government attorneys to low-income persons the outcomes of which when evaluated in the aggregate using traditional public health measures advance the public's health. This conception of public health legal services has emerged most prominently from innovative developments in …

Bio-Banks As A Tissue And Information Semi-Commons: Balancing Interests For Personalized Medicine, Tissue Donors And The Public Health, Ken Gatter

Ken Gatter

Tissue biobanks are critical to realizing the promise of personalized medicine. Unlike tissue repositories of the past, biobanks combine tissue with clinical and tissue derived molecular information. They are searchable, organized data-rich entities that can make lending decisions to qualified researchers. Biobanks have a green light and are growing in number, size, complexity and investment money, but forge ahead with many ethical and legal issues unsettled. The current approach has excessive redundancy, overlap and waste because tissue is often collected for a single purpose and information proprietary.

This essay will examine the advantages and shortcomings of current law describing human …

Smoked Success? Social, Cultural, And Legal Changes In The United States, Japan, And France Have Led To A Decline In Tobacco Use. Yet, Teenagers Refuse To Budge!, Dalila V. Hoover

Dalila V Hoover

Once considered a part of everyday life, tobacco consumption has become a global public health crisis that has transcended national borders. By the end of 2011, tobacco will have killed nearly six million people, including more than 600,000 of people exposed to tobacco smoke. If current smoking patterns continue, the toll will nearly double by 2030 with more than 8 million deaths. To safeguard the public’s health, the United States, Japan, and France have taken action to change the acceptability of smoking. Although they have adopted a different approach, they have successfully altered and redefined their cultural perception of tobacco …

Commerce Games And The Individual Mandate, Leslie Henry, Maxwell Stearns

Maxwell L. Stearns

While the Supreme Court declined an early invitation to resolve challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), a recent split between the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (sustaining the PPACA’s “individual mandate”) and the Eleventh Circuit (striking it down) virtually ensures that the Court will decide the fate of this centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s regulatory agenda. Whatever the Court’s decision, it will likely affect Commerce Clause doctrine- and related doctrines - for years or even decades to come.

Litigants, judges, and academic commentators have focused on whether the Court’s “economic activity” tests, …

Proxy Consent To Participation Of The Decisionally Impaired In Medical Research - Maryland's Policy Initiative, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Judging Genes: Implications Of The Second Generation Of Genetic Tests In The Courtroom, Diane E. Hoffmann, Karen H. Rothenberg

Diane Hoffmann

The use of DNA tests for identification has revolutionized court proceedings in criminal and paternity cases. Now, requests by litigants to admit or compel a second generation of genetic tests – tests to confirm or predict genetic diseases and conditions – threaten to affect judicial decision-making in many more contexts. Unlike DNA tests for identification, these second generation tests may provide highly personal health and behavioral information about individuals and their relatives and will pose new challenges for trial court judges. This article reports on an original empirical study of how judges analyze these requests and uses the study results …

The Influence Of Law And Lawyers On Patient Care, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Physicians Who Break The Law, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

This paper takes as its starting point a recent article by Prof. Sandra Johnson, Regulating Physician Behavior: Taking Doctors “Bad Law” Claims Seriously. In the article, Johnson focuses on doctors who comply with the law despite their belief that the law is “bad”, i.e., causes them to behave in ways that are harmful to their patients. In Physicians Who Break the Law, I explore cases where physicians break the law claiming that it is “bad”. In this exploration, I focus on two areas of physicians’ lawbreaking: (1) violations of business-related laws, in particular, insurance fraud; and (2) violations of laws …

Treating Pain V. Reducing Drug Diversion And Abuse: Recalibrating The Balance In Our Drug Control Laws And Policies, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

The Maryland Health Care Decisions Act: Achieving The Right Balance?, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

The Biotechnology Revolution And Its Regulatory Evolution, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Building Public Health Law Capacity At The Local Level, Diane Hoffmann, Virginia Rowthorn

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Tenth Anniversary Issue Of The Journal Of Health Care Law & Policy , Karen H. Rothenberg, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

When Should Judges Admit Or Compel Genetic Tests?, Diane Hoffmann, Karen Rothenberg

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Emergency Care And Managed Care - A Dangerous Combination, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Who Decides Whether A Patient Lives Or Dies?, Diane E. Hoffmann, Jack Schwartz

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women In The Treatment Of Pain, Diane E. Hoffmann, Anita J. Tarzian

Diane Hoffmann

In general, women report more severe levels of pain, more frequent incidences of pain, and pain of longer duration than men, but are nonetheless treated for pain less aggressively. The authors investigate this paradox from two perspectives: Do men and women in fact experience pain differently - whether biologically, cognitively, and/or emotionally? And regardless of the answer, what accounts for the differences in the pain treatment they receive, and what can we do to correct this situation?

Achieving Quality And Responding To Consumers - The Medicare Beneficiary Complaint Process: Who Should Respond?, Diane E. Hoffmann, Virginia Rowthorn

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Are Health Care Conflicts All That Different? A Contrarian View, Diane E. Hoffmann

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Medical Marijuana And The Law, Diane Hoffmann, Ellen Weber

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

Testing Children For Genetic Predispositions: Is It In Their Best Interest?, Diane E. Hoffmann, Eric A. Wulfsberg

Diane Hoffmann

No abstract provided.

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 …