Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Funding Long-Term Services And Supports (Ltss) For Working Aged Disabled Americans, Helen L. Rapp

Journal of Law and Health

There are a multitude of dilemmas faced today by over 3 million significantly disabled Americans, many of whom depend on Medicaid for Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) in obtaining the services they need to simply live. While the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has done a lot to improve the lives of people with disabilities, the reality is that using Medicaid as the vehicle for funding LTSS places unreasonable restrictions on disabled people who want to live independent lives and be as successful as possible.

The Federal Government must change funding for LTSS in order to provide disabled …

Mending Invisible Wounds: The Efficacy And Legality Of Mdma-Assisted Psychotherapy In United States' Veterans Suffering With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jonathan Perry

Journal of Law and Health

Though Veteran Affairs has provided crucial life sustaining—and often lifesaving—treatments to returning soldiers, the substantial and ever-increasing rates of veteran suicides, drug addictions, and criminal behavior indicate a need for broader options in treatment. One of the most profound discoveries uncovered through MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research is MDMA’s facilitation of the alleviation of addictive behavior in subjects, and, as a result, an alleviation of addictions in general. Addiction is one of the key symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and drug abuse plays a large role in the other afflictions suffered by veterans, namely criminal activity and a high rate of …

Quintavalle: The Quandary In Bioethics, Lisa Cherkassky

Journal of Law and Health

The case of R. (Quintavalle) v. Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority (and Secretary of State for Health) presents a handful of legal problems. The biggest legal query to arise from the case is the inevitable harvest of babies, toddlers and very young children for their bone marrow. This article unpacks the judicial story behind Quintavalle to reveal how the strict provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 - namely ‘suitable condition’ under schedule 2 paragraph 1(1)(a) and ‘treatment services’ and ‘assisting’ under section 2(1) - were widely misinterpreted to introduce the social selection of embryos into law. The legal …

Expansion Of Employee Wellness Programs Under Ppaca Creates Additional Barriers To Healthcare Insurance For Individuals With Disabilities, Amy B. Cheng

Journal of Law and Health

There are many barriers to healthcare for the general population that has been documented throughout the years, with one particularly affected group being individuals with disabilities. One identified healthcare barrier for individuals with disabilities is the inability to gain access to the healthcare system through health insurance. While many attempts have been made to resolve this issue, serious problems have yet to be resolved. The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) attempted to solve the issue by expanding Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996’s (HIPAA) current regulations on employee wellness programs. The relevant regulations govern employee wellness programs …

Save Thousands Of Lives Every Year: Resuscitate The Peer Review Privilege, Alan G. Williams

Journal of Law and Health

Doctors make mistakes—preventable medical mistakes—that kill or seriously injure patients. The best way to reduce these preventable errors is through a medical peer review process typically referred to as a "morbidity and mortality conference." However, over the past twenty years, federal and state courts, state legislatures, and state voters have effectively gutted the morbidity and mortality conference (M&M) as a remedial and preventative tool, resulting in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. Doctors need our help restoring the effectiveness of M&Ms. Congress has created the means to do so; now, all the courts need do is use it. …

Healer, Witness, Or Double Agent? Reexamining The Ethics Of Forensic Psychiatry, Matthew U. Scherer

Journal of Law and Health

In recent years, psychiatrists have become ever more prevalent in American courtrooms. Consequently, the issue of when the usual rules of medical ethics should apply to forensic psychiatric encounters has taken on increased importance and is a continuing topic of discussion among both legal and medical scholars. A number of approaches to the problem of forensic psychiatric ethics have been proposed, but none adequately addresses the issues that arise when a forensic encounter develops therapeutic characteristics. This article looks to the rules governing the lawyer-client relationship as a model for a new approach to forensic psychiatric ethics. This new model …

Roe V. Wade: The Case That Changed Democracy, Adam Lamparello, Cynthia Swann

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Provider Liability And Medical Identity Theft: Can I Get Your (Insurance) Number?, Thomas Clifford

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

When Religious Belief Becomes Scientific Opinion: Burwell V. Hobby Lobby And The Unraveling Of Federal Rule 702, Meredith Rachel Mandell

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Regulating Secrecy, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Articles

Inventors face a stark choice between two intellectual property systems of protecting innovative ideas: patents and trade secrecy. But accounts of this choice underexplore the role of the regulators that dominate some areas of innovation. Regulation interacts with intellectual property exclusivity in socially problematic ways by encouraging secrecy at the expense of innovation, efficiency, and competition. This Article theorizes how regulation empowers intellectual property generally, explains why this strengthening is problematic for trade secrecy but not for patents, and offers the solution of regulator-enforced disclosure. When a regulator defines a product or a process, it becomes much harder to successfully …

Quality Of Death People With Terminal Illnesses Are Turning To An Age-Old Method To End It All: Self-Starvation, Kazi E. Awal, Alyssa Pagano

Capstones

Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) is getting more attention in the medical community. Though physician assisted dying legislation passed in two more states in 2016--there are now 7 states where it is legal--the practice, where doctors prescribe a lethal dose of sedatives so that terminally ill patients can end their own lives, is inaccessible to many. But fasting to death is a way for patients suffering from terminal illnesses or other debilitating diseases to end their lives on their own terms that is legal everywhere. As extreme as it sounds, research shows the process can be made comfortable with …

Cybermedicine: The Benefits And Risks Of Purchasing Drugs Over The Internet, David Mills

Journal of Technology Law & Policy

In today's rapidly changing world of e-commerce, almost anything can be bought over the Internet and delivered right to your front door. Virtually every day there is news of yet another company selling some type of product online. Included in this barrage of products is prescription medication. Not only is it possible to order prescription medication over the Internet, in some cases it is not necessary to be examined, or even to consult with a physician. To some, this new type of "cybermedicine" is an affront to traditional medicine, as well as potentially dangerous to consumers. In addition, the availability …

The Tax Definition Of "Medical Care:" A Critique Of The Startling Irs Arguments In O'Donnabhain V. Commissioner, Katherine Pratt

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article critiques the startling arguments made by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) in O’Donnabhain v. Commissioner, a case in which the issue was whether a person diagnosed with gender identity disorder (“GID”) could take a federal tax deduction for the costs of male-to-female medical transition, including hormone treatment, genital surgery, and breast augmentation. Internal Revenue Code § 213 allows a deduction for the costs of “medical care,” which (1) includes costs incurred for “the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body,” but (2) generally …

Improving Community Health Through Hospital Community Benefit Spending: Charting A Path To Reform, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Maureen Byrnes, Sara Rothenberg, Rachel Gunsalus

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Talking One For The Herd: Eliminating Non-Medical Exemptions To Compulsory Vaccination Laws To Protect Immunocompromised Children, Kylie Barnhart

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

R-Egg-Ulation: A Call For Greater Regulation Of The Big Business Of Human Egg Harvesting, Danielle A. Vera

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

When it comes to young healthy women “donating” their eggs, America has a regulation problem. This Note explains the science behind the harvesting of human eggs, focusing on potential egg donors, and describes the specific factors that make egg donation a unique type of transaction. It describes the current regulatory status of the assisted reproductive technology industry in the United States and highlights the ways in which this scheme fails to protect egg “donors.” This Note concludes with a call for comprehensive regulation of the assisted reproductive technology industry.

No One Statute Should Have Too Much Power: How Electing Not To Amend 42 U.S.C § 1320(A)–7(B) May Frustrate The Purpose Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Amber C. Dawson

University of Miami Business Law Review

The over breadth of the Federal Anti-Kickback statute as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) holds dangerous implications for the future of the health care marketplace. When a statute permits criminal, civil and administrative punishment for an overbroad category of innocuous actions, such a statute must also take into account the specific, rather than general, intent of the actor, or the ensnaring of innocents is ultimately likely to result. Historically, the statute required a finding of specific intent to be found to uphold a violation of the statute. With the passing of Greber v. US and …

International Reciprocity: If A Drug Is Good Enough For Great Britain, It Should Be Good Enough For The United States, Nicole C. Perez

University of Miami Business Law Review

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest, and most lucrative, industries in the world, worth about one trillion U.S. dollars. Specifically, the United States accounts for more than one-third of the global pharmaceutical market with about 340 million dollars in sales. Not only is the pharmaceutical industry one of the biggest industries profit-wise, but it is also an industry that affects almost every single person in the world. In a nation where healthcare issues are always on the rise, ensuring that American citizens benefit from pharmacology is essential to improving the nation’s healthcare system. The Food and Drug Administration …

Informed Consent For The Use And Storage Of Residual Dried Blood Samples From State-Mandated Newborn Genetic Screening Programs, Tufik Y. Shayeb

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Anti-Disruption Statutory Construction, Jonathan H. Adler

Cardozo Law Review

The article examines Chief Justice John Roberts' approach to statutory interpretation, characterizing it as a form of "Burkean minimalism." This approach prioritizes judicial restraint, avoiding disruptive outcomes and maintaining stability in the law, even if it requires departing from the plain meaning of statutory text. Roberts' decisions often reflect a pragmatic willingness to reinterpret statutes to prevent significant disruptions, uphold legislative enactments, and preserve constitutional harmony, rather than adhering strictly to textualist or doctrinal purity.

Minding Ps And Qs: The Political And Policy Questions Framing Health Care Spending, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Tracing the evolution of political conversations about health care spending and their relationship to the formation of policy is a valuable exercise. Health care spending is about science and ethics, markets and government, freedom and community. By the late 1980s the unique upward trajectory of post-Medicare U.S. health care spending had been established, recessions and tax cuts were eroding federal and state budgets, and efforts to harness market forces to serve policy goals were accelerating. From the initial writings on “managed competition,” through the failed Clinton health reform effort in the early 1990s, to the passage of the Affordable Care …

The New York Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act: How A Narrow View Of The Prescription Drug Pricing Puzzle Renders A Well-Intentioned Bill Irrational, John G. Curran

Brooklyn Law Review

Pricing prescription pharmaceuticals is a complex process that entails the consideration of a multitude of factors, not the least of which is the research and development expenditure exhausted by drug makers to gain FDA approval. While public sentiment has increasingly turned against the pharmaceutical industry due to its perceived greed as manifested in the high cost of its drugs, the intricacies of pricing such unique products is rarely discussed. A recently proposed New York state bill, the Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act (the NYPCTA), continues this unfortunate trend, by requiring companies to disclose the R&D costs of newly approved drugs in …

Potholes: Dui Law In The Budding Marijuana Industry, Zack G. Goldberg

Brooklyn Law Review

The rapid legalization of marijuana across the United States has produced a number of novel legal issues. One of the most confounding issues is that presented by the marijuana-impaired driver. In jurisdictions that have legalized the use of marijuana, how high is too high to get behind the wheel? This note assesses the various marijuana DUI laws that states have implemented to combat marijuana-impaired driving. Many of these statutes have followed in the footsteps of the BAC-based standard used to combat drunk driving—using THC measurements to quantify a driver’s level of marijuana-based impairment. Unfortunately, unlike alcohol, the scientific properties of …

Regulating Off-Label Promotion — A Critical Test, Christopher Robertson, Aaron S. Kesselheim

Faculty Scholarship

In 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed down a landmark decision in the case of pharmaceutical sales representative Alfred Caronia. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved sodium oxybate (Xyrem) for treating narcolepsy, but Caronia promoted it for a wide range of nonapproved (off-label) indications, including insomnia, Parkinson’s disease, and fibromyalgia. Off-label use is common, especially in specialties such as oncology, in which it may even be considered the standard of care. However, surveys have revealed that supporting evidence is lacking for a majority of off-label uses of medical products.1 The uses Caronia …

Trouble On The Exchanges — Does The United Owe Billions To Health Insurers?, Nicholas Bagley

Articles

Yet another bruising fight has erupted over health care reform. On September 9, 2016, the Obama administration offered to open settlement negotiations with health insurers that have sued the United States to recover billions of dollars that they claim they are owed. Congressional Republicans are incensed, believing that any settlement would illegally squander taxpayer dollars in a lastgasp effort to save the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Program

Health Law & Policy Conferences

No abstract provided.

More Than Just A Toothache? N.C. Dental Leaves Medical Boards Vulnerable: A Look At Telemedicine Companies And Antitrust Challenges To State Prescription Drug Rules, Alexander R. Kalyniuk

William & Mary Business Law Review

Encouraged by technological advancements and favorable provisions within the Affordable Care Act, telemedicine companies that offer online doctor visits are thriving in the health care industry. Online doctor visits are a relatively new and cost-efficient method to provide medical care over long distances that do not require patients to step outside their homes. However, many state medical board scope-of-practice rules prohibit physicians from prescribing medications without an in-person physical examination of the patient, which impedes telemedicine companies from offering their online services in those states. To circumvent this barrier, telemedicine companies may have a prima facie case under § 1 …

The Heartbreak Of Not Making Automated External Defibrillators Available For Public Use, Samuel D. Hodge Jr., Daria Koscielniak

University of Miami Law Review

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is one of the greatest advancements in defibrillator technology in the past several decades. Its purpose is to treat sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death in this country. An AED checks the heart’s rhythm and will dispatch an electric jolt when needed to reestablish the organ’s normal electrical pattern. The magic of this portable device is that anyone can use it and it is relatively inexpensive to purchase. Studies have shown that access to AEDs can improve the odds of surviving a cardiac arrhythmia outside of the hospital and the American Heart Association …

A Promise Realized? A Critical Review Of Accountable Care Organizations Since The Enactment Of The Affordable Care Act, Jean Phillip Shami

University of Miami Law Review

As the six-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) comes to a close, a critical review of one of the key inventions of the ACA—Accountable Care Organizations (“ACOs”)—is timely as part of the greater narrative around affordable, quality health care in America. This Comment begins with a discussion of the statutory creation, philosophy and vision, and organizational structure of ACOs in the context of the passage of the ACA in 2010. Then, it will critically review ACOs from three perspectives based on the ACO model’s mission to provide better care for more people at a lower …

A Comprehensive Review Of The 2016 Asha Code Of Ethics, Robin L. Edge Ph.D., Ccc-Slp, Bess Sirmon-Taylor Ph.D., Ccc-Slp, Raul F. Prezas Ph.D., Ccc-Slp

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) initially implemented a Code of Ethics in 1952, and has periodically revisited the content of the document with revisions to reflect the expanding scope of practice within speech-language pathology and audiology and to clarify certain concepts. Code revision is a cyclical mandated task of the ASHA Board of Ethics conducted to assure accuracy, currency, and completeness of this most important document (Solomon-Rice & O’Rourke, 2016). The current version of the Code of Ethics (2016) was modified from the previous version (2010r), with an updated preamble, definitions of related vocabulary, and re-organized language in the principles. …