Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Angel Gutierrez-Zacatenco V. Rosa Herrera, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 52 (Aug. 13, 2026), Sana Azim

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Incomplete medical records can be authenticated for admissibility purposes through a sufficient fact-specific demonstration of authenticity.

Rbr Management, Llc V. Eighth Judicial District Court [State Of Nevada], 142 Nev., Adv. Op. 44 (June 18, 2026), Erika Loveland

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Emergency medical service providers and ambulances are not "provider[s] of health care" under NRS 41A.017, so claims against them are not professional negligence claims and require no expert affidavit.

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Inc. V. State Ex Rel. Office Of The Nevada Attorney General (Civil), 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 40 (May 28, 2026), Charnel Gibson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Nevada’s parental notification abortion statute is likely unconstitutionally vague because it fails to provide physicians with adequate notice of the conduct required and permits arbitrary enforcement.

Memoir: The Brain, Neuroethics, And Bioethics, Leslie C. Griffin

Scholarly Works

This Essay examines how developments in neuroscience (or brain science) affect our views of law, medicine, ethics, and religion. Part I shows how lack of clarity about brain death can lead to premature organ donation. Part II argues that health care too often provides inadequate brain care and incomplete rehabilitation. Part III explains why recovery may be possible for those braininjured patients who are told it is not. Part IV demonstrates how the fear of a brain-injured patient oddly affects my perspective on Tort and Criminal Law, which are being influenced by neuroscientific advances. Part V examines the new developments …

Renown Regional Med. Center V. Dist. Ct., 141 Nev. Adv. Op. 64 (December 11, 2025), Jacob Stephenson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Ordinary negligence sounds in professional negligence when it is based on conduct linked to a medical relationship.

Symposium Introduction: Illuminating Public Health Struggles Behind Bars, Justin Iverson, Javiera Sothers

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Keynote: Promoting Disability Equality Behind Bars, Margo Schlanger

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Secretive Sheriffs: Opacity And Variation In California's Jail Responses To Covid-19, Aparna Komarla, Hadar Aviram

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Decades Of Indifference And Failures In Accountability In The Provision Of Medical Care In Federal Prisons, Nicole B. Godfrey

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Major Question: Has Osha Missed Its Opportunity To Regulate Medical Residentduty Hours?, Anthony Anguille-Valles

Nevada Law Journal

Medical residents fall into a category of workers perpetually overlooked by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) due to their dual role as employee and trainee. Despite OSHA’s knowledge of the often life-threatening safety and health hazards medical residents face in the workplace pursuant to their uniquely arduous working conditions—most notably their duty hours—it has declined repetitiously to exercise its authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act to intervene. While OSHA’s past failure to intervene should not hinder it from exercising its statutory authority to protect medical residents in the workplace today, SCOTUS’ recent efforts to curb administrative …

Limiting Overall Hospital Costs By Capping Out-Of-Network Rates, David Orentlicher, Kyra Morgan, Barak Richman

Scholarly Works

Contract theory offers a simple and wildly effective solution to surprise bills: Hospital admissions contracts are contracts with open price terms, which contract law imputes with market rates. This solution not only obviated the costly, time-consuming, and complicated (and still unimplemented) legislative fix in the No Surprises Act, but it also is a superior solution since it introduces superior incentives to disclose, compete, and economize.

Using data from the Nevada Department of Health and Turquoise Health, this paper explores the theory and empirics of employing contract law's solution to hospital surprise bills and its superiority over other legislative interventions.

A Framework For Tribal Public Health Law, Aila Hoss

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Disclosing Deviations: Using Guidelines To Nudge And Empower Physician-Patient Decision Making, Melissa Ballengee Alexander

Nevada Law Journal

Americans fail to receive recommended care roughly half the time, reflecting poor decision making that threatens their health. This Article offers an innovative solution: require physicians to disclose clinical practice guideline recommendations to patients during informed consent. Behavioral economics suggests that insisting physicians and patients discuss guidelines, before deviating from them, could be surprisingly effective at nudging more rational care choices. At the same time, such disclosure should also educate and empower patients, serving autonomy.

Previous scholarship on unwarranted variances in care has focused primarily on malpractice reforms, largely ignoring the role of cognitive bias and the importance of patients …

About A Revolution: Toward Integrated Treatment In Drug And Mental Health Courts, Sara Gordon

Scholarly Works

This Article examines specialty courts, including drug, alcohol, and mental health courts, which proponents claim created a revolution in criminal justice. Defendants whose underlying crime is the result of a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder can choose to be diverted into a specialty court, where they receive treatment instead of punishment. Many of these individuals, however, do not just suffer from a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder; instead, many have a “co-occurring disorder.” Approximately 8.9 million American adults have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and almost half of individuals who meet diagnostic …

Florida Law, Mobile Research Applications, And The Right To Privacy, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

This Article investigates whether state law contains comprehensive privacy, security, and breach notification standards that could apply to independent scientists who conduct mobile app mediated health research. Focusing only on Florida law, this Article assesses potentially relevant and applicable sources of privacy, security, and breach notification standards for health data of the type obtained during mobile app mediated health research studies. This Article concludes that, with one exception, Florida law tends to fall into one of two categories: (1) the law contains at least one data privacy, security, or breach notification standard, but the standard is limited in application to …

A Timely Right To Privacy, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

On December 28, 2017, the federal Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") settled its fiftieth case involving potential violations of the privacy, security, and breach notification rules ("Rules") that implement the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA") and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("HITECH"). This Article catalogues and examines currently available enforcement actions involving the HIPAA and HITECH Rules, including the cases in which HHS has entered into a settlement agreement with a HIPAA covered entity or business associate, the cases in which HHS has imposed a civil money penalty on a HPAA …

Substance Use Disorder Insurance Benefits: A Survey Of State Benchmark Plans, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Professor Tovino presents the results of a survey of state benchmark health plan coverage of substance use disorder treatments and services, including treatments and services for opioid use disorder.

State Benchmark Plan Coverage Of Opioid Use Disorder Treatments And Services: Trends And Limitations, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Professor Tovino offers a survey of state benchmark plan coverage of opioid use disorder treatments and services, and identifies trends and limitations relevant thereto. Part II of the article provides background information regarding opioid use disorder and the treatments and services available for individuals with this disorder. Part III reviews federal mental health parity law and federal mandatory mental health and substance use disorder law as applied to insurance coverage of treatments and services for opioid use disorder, with a focus on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) state benchmark health plan selection requirement and the effect on that requirement of …

Fraud, Abuse, And Opioids, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

This Article analyzes recent government enforcement actions involving two health care fraud and abuse authorities, including the federal Anti- Kickback Statute and the federal civil False Claims Act, in cases involving opioids.

Part II of this Article examines recent government enforcement actions involving the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits (among other conduct) the exchange of remuneration for opioid prescriptions, patient referrals for drug testing services, and patient referrals for addiction treatment services if such prescriptions or services are reimbursed in whole or in part by a federal health care program.

Part III of this Article examines recent government enforcement actions …

Going Rogue: Mobile Research Applications And The Right To Privacy, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

This Article investigates whether nonsectoral state laws may serve as a viable source of privacy and security standards for mobile health research participants and other health data subjects until new federal laws are created or enforced. In particular, this Article (1) catalogues and analyzes the nonsectoral data privacy, security, and breach notification statutes of all fifty states and the District of Columbia; (2) applies these statutes to mobile-app-mediated health research conducted by independent scientists, citizen scientists, and patient researchers; and (3) proposes substantive amendments to state law that could help protect the privacy and security of all health data subjects, …

The First Amendment And Mandatory Condom Laws: Rethinking The “Porn Exception” In Strict Scrutiny, Content Neutrality And Secondary Effects Analysis, Jason M. Shepard

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Computer Made Me Do It: Is There A Future For False Claims Act Liability Against Electronic Health Record Vendors?, Deborah R. Farringer

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Law, Religion, And Health Care, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Health Care Reform: What Has Been Accomplished What Comes Next, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

A Right To Care, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

In this Article, Professor Stacey Tovino examines the right to care through a personal and historical lens, then attempts to fill a scholarly gap in legal literature surrounding the right to skilled care and rehabilitation for patients with group or commercial insurance. Professor Tovino first recounts the history of Medicare coverage for skilled care and rehabilitation, then she examines the limitations of group and commercial insurance, finally concluding by asserting a right to care.

Dying For A Solution: The Regulation Of Medical Devices Falls Short In The 21st Century Cures Act, Marilyn Uzdavines

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Szymborski V. Spring Mtn. Treatment Ctr., 133 Nev. Adv. Op. 80 (Oct. 26, 2017), Paloma Guerrero

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined medical malpractice, and subsequent adherence to NRS 41A.071, involves a medical diagnosis, treatment, or judgment, and when the standards of care pertaining to the medical issue require explanation to the jury from a medical expert at trial. Therefore, Szymborski’s claims for negligence, malpractice, gross negligence, negligence per se, and negligent hiring, training, and supervision state claims for relief which were not based on a medical treatment or judgment and should not have been dismissed for failure to attach the NRS 41A.071 affidavit.

A Generic A Day Keeps The Lawyer Away, Cara Brumfield

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trial And Error: Legislating Adr For Medical Malpractice Reform, Lydia Nussbaum

Scholarly Works

The U.S. healthcare system has a problem: hundreds of thousands of people die each year, and over a million are injured, by medical mistakes that could have been avoided. Furthermore, over ninety percent of these patients and their families never learn of the errors or receive redress. This problem persists, despite myriad reforms to the medical malpractice system, because of lawmakers' dominant focus on reducing providers' liability insurance costs. Reform objectives are beginning to change, however, and the vehicle for implementing these changes is alternative dispute resolution ("ADR"). Historically, legislatures deployed ADR to curb malpractice litigation and restrict patients' access …

Teaching The Hipaa Privacy Rule, Stacey A. Tovino

Scholarly Works

Twenty years ago, President Clinton signed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) into law. Over the past two decades, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published several sets of rules implementing the Administrative Simplification provisions within HIPAA as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical (HITECH) Act within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). These rules include, but certainly are not limited to, a final rule published on January 25, 2013, governing the use and disclosure of protected health information by covered entities and their business associates (the …