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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Aca’S Tobacco Use Rating: Implementation, Inconsistencies And Ironies, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble Aug 2013

The Aca’S Tobacco Use Rating: Implementation, Inconsistencies And Ironies, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble

Mary Ann Chirba

As the Affordable Care Act continues toward full implementation, the law’s complexity is on full display. As we have noted in earlier writings, the ACA continues the federal tradition of using a fragmented approach to allocating oversight responsibilities among federal and state regulators, while maintaining the role of private actors in health care insurance and delivery systems. The result is a dizzying array of plan types (self-insured, fully insured, small market, individual market, large market, grandfathered) subject to an equally dizzying blend of ACA, ERISA, and individual state requirements.


Erisa Preemption Of State “Play Or Pay” Mandates: How Ppaca Clouds An Already Confusing Picture, Mary Ann Chirba Aug 2013

Erisa Preemption Of State “Play Or Pay” Mandates: How Ppaca Clouds An Already Confusing Picture, Mary Ann Chirba

Mary Ann Chirba

From the introduction: Although ERISA preemption was ranked among the top "eight pertinent issues" that needed to be addressed in order to achieve comprehensive health care reform, Congress opted to avoid it when it passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act on March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act just one week later ("PPACA" or the "Act", collectively). Currently 180 million Americans receive employer-sponsored health benefits, and millions more will do so once PPACA takes full effect over the next few years. This expansion of employer based coverage, coupled with what the Act does …


Medical Malpractice, The Affordable Care Act And State Provider Shield Laws: More Myth Than Necessity?, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble Aug 2013

Medical Malpractice, The Affordable Care Act And State Provider Shield Laws: More Myth Than Necessity?, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble

Mary Ann Chirba

Given the ambitions and reach of the Affordable Care Act, confusion about its intended and inadvertent impact is inevitable. Since its enactment in 2010, the ACA has raised legitimate and less grounded concerns among various stakeholders ranging from individuals and employers facing coverage mandates to States deciding whether and how to implement the Act’s Medicaid expansions. One item has received far less attention even though it weighs heavily on any provider engaged in the clinical practice of medicine: the ACA’s impact on medical malpractice liability. The Act does little to address medical malpractice head on. Nevertheless, physicians and other providers, …


The Supreme Court On The Affordable Care Act: What We Are Waiting For, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble Aug 2013

The Supreme Court On The Affordable Care Act: What We Are Waiting For, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble

Mary Ann Chirba

From the introduction: With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) it is worth reminding ourselves of what, exactly, we have been waiting for. We await a judicial opinion that could deliver a decisive blow to all or part of a massive piece of legislation and the hard-fought battles that led to its enactment, or salvage the near-century-old quest for health care reform. At the same time we await an opinion that may reshape our fundamental understanding of the Court, the power of Congress, and long-standing principles of federalism.


The Supreme Court Upholds The Individual Mandate: But Who Are We Talking About?, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble Aug 2013

The Supreme Court Upholds The Individual Mandate: But Who Are We Talking About?, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble

Mary Ann Chirba

From the introduction: While the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate survived constitutional scrutiny in NFIB v. Sebelius, a Republican president and/or changes in the House or Senate this fall could lead to its demise. As campaigns shift into high gear, the law’s opponents will undoubtedly draw on the strident and jointly authored dissent of Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito. Despite the value of robust debate, relying on the dissent may be problematic due to its misperceptions about the ACA and the realities of health care. Thus, while we considered what we were waiting for in the weeks before the …


Our Bodies, Our Cells: Fda Regulation Of Autologous Adult Stem Cell Therapies, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble Aug 2013

Our Bodies, Our Cells: Fda Regulation Of Autologous Adult Stem Cell Therapies, Mary Ann Chirba, Alice Noble

Mary Ann Chirba

Stem cells have been an endless source of fascination and controversy since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996. This month’s announcement of a cloned human embryo from a single skin cell came on the heels of Sir John B. Gurdon and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka’s receipt of the 2012 Nobel for Physiology and Medicine for their work with induced pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells can be embryonic or induced. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can generally be obtained from human embryos or by cloning embryos through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), as was done for Dolly. Gurdon and Yamanaka demonstrated …


Individual And Group Coverage Under The Aca: More Patches To The Federal-State Crazy Quilt, Mary Ann Chirba Jan 2013

Individual And Group Coverage Under The Aca: More Patches To The Federal-State Crazy Quilt, Mary Ann Chirba

Mary Ann Chirba

From the introduction: Throughout the 2012 Presidential campaign, Republican contenders criticized the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a “federal take-over of health care” for its promotion of national uniformity in health coverage and access. Yet long before passage, the architects of the ACA quickly rejected a federal single payor system, or even a federal public plan to complement the private sector plans due to forceful opposition to national reform. Instead, they traveled the only politically viable road to reform: maintaining the fragmented and complex system of health care coverage, where federal and state governments as well as the private sector …