Law Commons^™

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.

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 …

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.

Commerce Games And The Individual Mandate, Leslie Meltzer Henry, Maxwell L. Stearns

Leslie Meltzer Henry

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, …

Electromagnetic Pulse And The U.S. Food Security Paradigm: Assumptions, Risks, And Recommendations, Maximilian Leeds

Maximilian Leeds

This paper analyzes the systemic dangers posed to the U.S. economy by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), either naturally occurring or maliciously generated, from a food security perspective. Section I examines the modern structure of the U.S. food supply chain, analyzing the just-in-time international distribution model and criticizing it as vulnerable to systemic shock and cascade failure. Section II examines the function and history of the electromagnetic pulse, assesses its potential to serve as a catalyst for systemic breakdown in the domestic food supply chain, and explores the current state of food security planning in the United States pertaining to this …

Individual Mandates: A Founder-Approved Means Under The Necessary And Proper Clause, Eli Alcaraz

Eli A Alcaraz

The Affordable Health Care Act’s (“ACA”) individual mandate requiring most Americans to purchase healthcare was challenged as unconstitutional even before the ACA was passed. Challengers to the ACA assert that the federal government has never been allowed to force an individual to make a purchase from a private entity and that the ACA’s requirement that an individual do so is unconstitutional. This Comment takes issue with those asserting that an “individual mandate” is a contemporary invention and unconstitutional. As a matter of fact, there is at least one historical example where the federal government has forced individuals to makes purchases …

Individual Mandates: Congress’ Power To Force Individuals To Purchase Goods From Private Entities Is Older Than You Think, Eli Alcaraz

Eli A Alcaraz

The Affordable Health Care Act’s (“ACA”) individual mandate was challenged as unconstitutional since before the passing of the ACA. Challengers to the ACA assert that the federal government has never been allowed to force and individual to make a purchase from a private entity and that the ACA’s requirement that an individual do so is unconstitutional. This Article takes issue with those asserting that an “individual mandate” is a contemporary invention. In fact, there has been at least one instance where the federal government has forced individuals to makes purchases from private entities in the Uniform Militia Act of 1792. …

Learning From Our Past To Help Save Our Future: Historical Public Health Crises And How These Lessons Will Help Solve Obesity, Kate M. Emminger

Kate M Emminger

The obesity epidemic continues to plague the United States. Debates regarding strategies to solve the obesity crisis are constant but little has been accomplished by public health officials. Obesity is a multi-faceted, stigmatized problem, but it is not beyond the reach of public health. To prove that public health strategies must be utilized to solve the obesity crisis, this paper makes a comparative analysis between past successful public health campaigns and the obesity epidemic. Enlightening parallels exist between the bubonic plague, tobacco cessation and obesity. The bubonic plague parallels obesity because the plague lacked a pill or vaccine cure, was …

Quo Vadis Wto? The Threat Of Trips And The Biodiversity Convention To Human Health And Food Security, Kojo Yelpaala

Kojo Yelpaala

Abstract Just a few years following the coming into force of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreements, the risks they posed to human health and food security became self-evident. This problem has been acknowledged by the WTO in the Doha Declaration, by other United Nations Organs and commentators. Joined at the hip the WTO and TRIPS system, as implemented, seems to have aggravated the severe and debilitating disease burden and food insecurity of many of its member developing countries that existed prior to TRIPS. Although the WTO and its Council …

Addressing Access To Medicine: The Influence Of Competing Patent Perspectives, Cynthia M. Ho

Cynthia M Ho

Promoting access to affordable medicine for poor countries is considered important by a wide range of actors, including not only rich and poor countries, but also public health advocates, patent owners, and scholars. However, promoting access has been elusive. Public health advocates argue that access to medicine is increasingly difficult due to changes in domestic and international laws that limit access to unpatented and low-cost generic drugs by expanding the scope of patent rights. Patent owners and some countries deny these claims while simultaneously advocating for more expansive patent rights as necessary to promote innovation and development. This article addresses …

The Growing Consumer Exposure To Nanotechnology In Everyday Products: Regulating Innovative Technologies In Light Of Lessons From The Past, K Van Tassel, R Goldman

Katharine A. Van Tassel

Consumers in the United States are being exposed to steadily increasing levels of novel and untested engineered nanoparticles as a result of their contact with everyday consumer products. Nanoparticles are very small particles that are engineered using innovative technologies to be 1 to 100 nanometers in size. Just how small is small? In comparison, a human hair is 80,000 nanometers wide. Nanoscale materials are increasingly being used in a wide variety of areas, including electronic, magnetic, medical imaging, drug delivery, catalytic, materials applications, and cosmetic products. According to the National Institute of Occupational Health, new nanotechnology consumer products are coming …

The Growing Consumer Exposure To Nanotechnology In Everyday Products: Regulating Innovative Technologies In Light Of Lessons From The Past, K Van Tassel, R Goldman

Katharine A. Van Tassel

Consumers in the United States are being exposed to steadily increasing levels of novel and untested substances as a result of their contact with consumer products containing nanoparticles. Hundreds of consumer products are being marketed for human consumption, including food, dietary supplements, cosmetics and sunscreens. This expanding market ignores the growing scientific understanding that nanoparticles can create unintended human health and environmental risks. This Article discusses the public health, regulatory, legal and ethical issues raised by the developing appreciation of the health risks associated with nanotech products and is arranged as follows. After this Introduction, this Article describes the present …