Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Legal Preparedness For Pandemic Influenza: Is Virginia Ready, Kristen Digirolam

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

We cannot look at the legal issues of pandemic influenza in a vacuum. This paper attempts to identify the legal issues at stake during a pandemic and how those issues need to be discussed as a whole when preparing for a pandemic. Part II of this paper will give a brief description of pandemic influenza and look at the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Part III will examine the origins of legal authority during a pandemic at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Part IV will look at some of the specific legal issues that may arise during …

Lyme Disease: The Surprising Debate In The 2010 Virginia House Of Delegates, Gerald C. Canaan Ii, Karah L. Gunther

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In most every General Assembly session, there are those bills that while on the surface appear fairly innocuous-quickly take on a life of their own, generating an audible buzz in and around the General Assembly Building. The 2010 Virginia General Assembly session was no different. Amidst hallway discussions concerning the budget, gun rights, and abortion, one could also hear the distinct murmur of a completely novel topic: Lyme disease. Often associated with a small, pesky insect known as the black-legged tick, until this year, Lyme disease had not been the subject of any controversial legislation proposed in the Commonwealth of …

Jamming The Revolving Door: Legislative Setbacks For Mental Health Court Systems In Virginia, Sheila Moheb

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Proponents of MHCs assert that alternative court systems will provide efficient jail diversion programs and reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system by directing them to appropriate community treatment facilities. At the same time, MHCs must serve as only one branch of a larger, cohesive community effort to deter individuals with mental illness from incarceration, if not from conviction. Both advocates and adversaries of MHCs remain wary of the potential misuse of mental health courts, which may subject people with mental illness to greater criminalization or lead to greater fragmentation of the mental health …

Not So Hip - The Expanded Burdens On And Consequences To Law Firms As Business Associates Under Hitech Modifications To Hipaa, Megan Bradshaw, Benjamin K. Hoover

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA ") governs the management of protected health information by covered entities (e.g., health care providers) and their business associates. However, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("HITECH"), contained within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("ARRA"), drastically alters the scope of HIPAA regulations with regard to business associates, including law firms that routinely handle the protected health information ("PHI") governed by HIPAA. Under the HITECH Act, the definition of "business associate" is expanded, and these entities are treated as "covered" for purposes of the …

What Scribner Wrought: How The Invention Of Modern Dialysis Shaped Health Law And Policy, Sallie Thieme Sanford

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

In March 1960, Clyde Shields, a machinist dying from incurable kidney disease, was connected to an "artificial kidney" by means of a Ushaped Teflon tube that came to be known as the Scribner shunt. By facilitating long-term dialysis, Dr. Belding Scriber's invention changed chronic kidney failure from a fatal illness to a treatable condition. A half-century after this milestone, there are now more than 1.6 million people throughout the world on maintenance dialysis. This medical advancement has, in turn, had a profound impact on key areas of health law and policy. This paper focuses on the historical roots and current …

Medical Rights For Same-Sex Couples And Rainbow Families, Anisa Mohanty

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

The present state of the law regarding medical rights for same-sex couples and their families is highly inconsistent. A handful of states permit same-sex marriage. Another handful of states recognize samesex marriages from other states, allow civil unions with state-level spousal rights for same-sex couples, or extend some or nearly all statelevel spousal rights to unmarried couples in domestic partnerships. With these widely disparate levels of recognition, it becomes difficult for same-sex couples to navigate their options and rights when a loved one-a partner or child-has a medical emergency or is in the hospital. In Part II, this Comment will …

Legal Preparedness For Pandemic Influenza: Is Virginia Ready, Kristen Digirolam

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

We cannot look at the legal issues of pandemic influenza in a vacuum. This paper attempts to identify the legal issues at stake during a pandemic and how those issues need to be discussed as a whole when preparing for a pandemic. Part II of this paper will give a brief description of pandemic influenza and look at the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Part III will examine the origins of legal authority during a pandemic at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Part IV will look at some of the specific legal issues that may arise during …

Jamming The Revolving Door: Legislative Setbacks For Mental Health Court Systems In Virginia, Sheila Moheb

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Proponents of MHCs assert that alternative court systems will provide efficient jail diversion programs and reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system by directing them to appropriate community treatment facilities. At the same time, MHCs must serve as only one branch of a larger, cohesive community effort to deter individuals with mental illness from incarceration, if not from conviction. Both advocates and adversaries of MHCs remain wary of the potential misuse of mental health courts, which may subject people with mental illness to greater criminalization or lead to greater fragmentation of the mental health …

Health Care Law, Kathleen M. Mccauley, Kristi L. Vanderlaan

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessing Legal Competencies For Obesity Prevention And Control, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Obesity is the result of people consistently consuming more calories than they expend. A complex interaction of social and environmental conditions affects both energy consumption and physical activity levels. Health professionals who understand the social and environmental factors related to obesity risk may find it challenging to identify, understand, or develop a strategy to improve the vast array of laws that play a role in shaping our environment and behaviors.

Competency in the use of laws and legal authorities is one of the four core elements of public health legal preparedness. Legal competency" is a particularly important component of a …

Improving Legal Competencies For Obesity Prevention And Control, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Our purpose is to offer action options that will help to improve the legal competencies of public health practitioners and policy decision makers with respect to drafting, interpreting, implementing, and enforcing laws and regulations that are relevant to the effective prevention and control of obesity. The accompanying assessment paper provided a foundation for this agenda by first establishing that legal competence for obesity prevention and control is important for both health professionals, who with proper training can effectively interject health considerations into decision- making processes, and non-health professionals involved with relevant policy and legal work, who with proper training can …

“Medical” Monitoring For Non-Medical Harms: Evaluating The Reasonable Necessity Of Measures To Avoid Identity Fraud After A Data Breach, James Graves

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In July 2005, “reformed” hacker Albert Gonzalez noticed an insecure wireless network at a Marshalls department store in Miami. After exploiting the vulnerability, Gonzalez and his accomplices installed programs that captured credit card numbers. They stored the credit card numbers on servers in Latvia and Ukraine, created ATM cards using some of the numbers, and used those cards to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Fifteen months later, Marshalls’ parent company, TJX, announced that forty-five million of its customers’ credit card numbers had been exposed to the thieves.

The Regulation Of Nanomedicine: Will The Existing Regulatory Scheme Of The Fda Suffice?, Shanna Harris

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Nanotechnology is the science and technology of manipulating molecules and atoms at the molecular level to create devices with new molecular properties, organizations and functions.1 Devices such as new computers that are billions of times more powerful than any currently available2 and boxes the size of sugar cubes that can hold the entire content of the Library of Congress are examples of the power of nanotechnology.

Adopting A New Approach To Medical Information For Adoptees, Jessica Marie Yoke

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Some estimates indicate that at least six million adoptees lived in the United States in 1997. "After factoring in birth parents and adoptive parents for each adoptee, the number of persons directly affected by the adoption process grows to over [twenty-four million] persons." States conducted many of these adoptions privately, particularly those that did not occur recently, so the parties remain anonymous to one another. Thus, an enormous number of Americans are now struggling in a system built on antiquated law that is not very useful, and in fact might be harmful. This Comment proposes a solution to this overlooked …

Real Feminists For Motherhood Coalition, Petitioner V. Virginia, Bridget Leanne Welborn

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

JUSTICE KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS, and JUSTICES BREYER, STEVENS, and THOMAS joined. CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS filed a concurring opinion, in which JUSTICE THOMAS joined. JUSTICE SCALIA filed a dissenting opinion, in which JUSTICE ALITO joined. JUSTICE GINSBERG filed a dissenting opinion, in which JUSTICE SOUTER joined. Since this Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973,1 we received numerous requests to reconsider the validity of that ruling or to otherwise limit its application. Petitioner renews this request, asking us to discard our much maligned and now limited Roe doctrine. After struggling with this …

Adopting A New Approach To Medical Information For Adoptees, Jessica Marie Yoke

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Some estimates indicate that at least six million adoptees lived in the United States in 1997. "After factoring in birth parents and adoptive parents for each adoptee, the number of persons directly affected by the adoption process grows to over [twenty-four million] persons." States conducted many of these adoptions privately, particularly those that did not occur recently, so the parties remain anonymous to one another. Thus, an enormous number of Americans are now struggling in a system built on antiquated law that is not very useful, and in fact might be harmful. This Comment proposes a solution to this overlooked …

Will The Federal Circuit’S Eli Lilly V. Teva Decision Lead To Efforts To Abuse The Modification Provision Of The Hatch-Waxman Act?, Claire K. Comfort

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Hatch-Waxman Act provides a mandatory thirty-month stay on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) when a patent infringement suit is filed. The Act includes a provision for a district court to shorten or extend the Act’s thirty-month stay on FDA approval if “either party to the action failed to reasonably cooperate in expediting the action”

New Era Begins: Mental Health Law Reform In Virginia, Jane D. Hickey, Allyson K. Tysinger, William C. Mims

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Amidst calls for mental health reform and a sense of urgency stemming from the tragic events at Virginia Tech, the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly convened. The legislative reaction was overwhelming: Legislators introduced a vast array of bills relating to mental health. By the end of the session, the General Assembly enacted the most sweeping revisions to Virginia's mental health laws since the 1970s.

Mary Doe’S Destiny: How The United States Has Banned Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research In The Absence Of A Direct Prohibition, Yi-Chen Su, Albert Wai-Kit Chan

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Mary Doe is a human embryo preserved in liquid nitrogen, in an unnamed in vitro fertilization clinic. Mary Doe’s name was given by an organization dedicated to advocating for equal humanity and personhood of pre-born children, including “children in vitro.” In response to President Clinton’s policy favoring embryonic stem cell [hereinafter ES- cell] research, the organization filed suit on behalf of Mary Doe, and all other frozen human embryos similarly situated, seeking a permanent injunction against any and all plans to undertake human ES-cell experimentation.

New Era Begins: Mental Health Law Reform In Virginia, Jane D. Hickey, Allyson K. Tysinger

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Amidst calls for mental health reform and a sense of urgency stemming from the tragic events at Virginia Tech, the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly convened. The legislative reaction was overwhelming: Legislators introduced a vast array of bills relating to mental health. By the end of the session, the General Assembly enacted the most sweeping revisions to Virginia's mental health laws since the 1970s.

Secondhand Smoke Deserves First-Rate Attention, Rickie Fulcher

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Most people probably do not know that as many as 65,000 nonsmokers die from secondhand smoke exposure each year. In fact, secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. During the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly, state legislators commendably introduced twelve smoke-free bills -the most in the legislature's history. While many of these efforts to protect the public health succeeded in the Senate, a House of Delegates subcommittee declined to hear many of the bills, effectively removing them from further consideration. Clearly, Virginia has a long way to go, but support for …

Obesity, Poverty, And The Built Environment: Challenges And Opportunities, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Obesity is linked to behaviors related to food consumption and physical activity. Although the factors affecting behaviors in these areas are complex, there is growing evidence that the physical characteristics of many of our communities, and particularly poorer communities, encourage obesity-generating behaviors including a sedentary lifestyle arid unhealthy eating habits. This paper explores the relationship between obesity causing behavior and the physical characteristics of communities and highlights some of the challenges and opportunities associated with changing those physical characteristics.

Mental Health In Virginia, Phillip Hamilton

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Since the April 16, 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech, the public's attention has focused on Virginia's mental health system. Like far too many public policy issues that face the government, it often takes a tragedy to bring an issue to the point where real action is taken. Over the years, one of the major issues facing Virginia has been how to best meet the needs of its citizens requiring mental health services. This is not a new issue. Since 1949 there have been many studies of Virginia's mental health system. These studies have emphasized the same issues over and over …

Promised Reforms Fall Short Of The Mark, Colleen Miller

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Did the General Assembly pass sweeping mental health law reforms? Do the new laws make it easier to hospitalize individuals against their will, and if so, is that a desirable end? While new legislation rewords our civil commitment statute, do the new words really improve Virginia's mental health care system? In all likelihood, the most significant effect of the new legislation will be making our mental health laws more vulnerable to constitutional challenge, while simultaneously making it more difficult for Virginians to get necessary mental health treatment voluntarily.

Mental Health In Virginia, Phillip Hamilton

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Since the April 16, 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech, the public's attention has focused on Virginia's mental health system. Like far too many public policy issues that face the government, it often takes a tragedy to bring an issue to the point where real action is taken. Over the years, one of the major issues facing Virginia has been how to best meet the needs of its citizens requiring mental health services. This is not a new issue. Since 1949 there have been many studies of Virginia's mental health system. These studies have emphasized the same issues over and over …

Promised Reforms Fall Short Of The Mark, Colleen Miller

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Did the General Assembly pass sweeping mental health law reforms? Do the new laws make it easier to hospitalize individuals against their will, and if so, is that a desirable end? While new legislation rewords our civil commitment statute, do the new words really improve Virginia's mental health care system? In all likelihood, the most significant effect of the new legislation will be making our mental health laws more vulnerable to constitutional challenge, while simultaneously making it more difficult for Virginians to get necessary mental health treatment voluntarily.

Secondhand Smoke Deserves First-Rate Attention, Rickie Fulcher

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Most people probably do not know that as many as 65,000 nonsmokers die from secondhand smoke exposure each year. In fact, secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. During the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly, state legislators commendably introduced twelve smoke-free bills -the most in the legislature's history. While many of these efforts to protect the public health succeeded in the Senate, a House of Delegates subcommittee declined to hear many of the bills, effectively removing them from further consideration. Clearly, Virginia has a long way to go, but support for …

Charting A New Course: Practical Considerations For Implementing An Electronic Health Records System, Roy H. Wyman, Amanda L. Kutz

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

What is true for many aspects of life is also true for HIT-timing is everything. When a practice is ready to move forward with an EHR system, the potential benefits are numerous, from capturing potential clinical and billing mistakes to lessening the need for additional personnel and the prompt sharing of information with other providers. Attempting to install an EHR system before a practice, or any provider, is ready, however, can lead to disaster, as was discovered at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when it was forced to shelve its three-month-old, thirtyfour million dollar computer system. This Article explores the legal issues …

Health Care Law, Sean P. Byrne, Paul Walkinshaw

University of Richmond Law Review

Arguably, no other field of law in Virginia matches the complexity, magnitude, and universality of health care. It therefore comes as little surprise that Virginia's legislative and judicial branches of government devoted substantial attention to health care law issues in 2006 and 2007. Between April 2006 and April 2007 the time period covered by this article the Supreme Court of Virginia decided a large number of cases directly affecting health care law in the Commonwealth. The 2007 legislative session also addressed a host of health care issues and those with the most impact are summarized herein. These judicial and legislative …

The Whole Is Not Always Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts: A Call For Stricter Regulation Of Post-Mortem Human Tissue, Megan A. Scanlon

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article examines the regulatory system surrounding the post-mortem human tissue industry. The author begins by describing many valuable applications of human tissue donations and then how persons misuse and abuse such privileges. The author goes on to explain current regulatory systems and agencies which oversee the regulation, concluding the laws need reform of several issues.