Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Equitable Health Savings Accounts, Samuel Estreicher, Clinton G. Wallace

Faculty Publications

This Article offers the first comprehensive legal-policy critique of existing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), arguing that the current approach is redistributively regressive, thus exacerbating inequality, and also fails to accomplish stated healthcare goals. We propose an alternative—Equitable Health Savings Accounts—which uses cash grants as a tool to address both of these problems. Equitable HSAs are a market-based social program that calibrates size and delivery of a government subsidy to help the least well off and to facilitate participation in healthcare markets. Equitable HSAs can serve as a model for using cash grants to bridge the gap between Republican social policy …

"Hash"Ing Out Inequality In The Legal Recreational Cannabis Industry, Maya Rahwanji

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

The Patent Ability Of Genetic Therapies: Car-T And Medical Treatment Exclusions Around The World, Luis Gil Abinader, Jorge L. Contreras

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis And Critique Of Mental Health Treatment In American State Prisons And Proposal For Improved Care, Shelby Hayne

Scripps Senior Theses

Mental health treatment in state prisons is revealed to be highly variable, under-funded, and systematically inadequate. Existing literature exposes this injustice but fails to provide a comprehensive proposal for reform. This paper attempts to fill that gap, outlining a cost-effective, evidence-based treatment proposal, directly addressing the deficits in care revealed through analysis of our current system. In addition, this paper provides historical overviews of the prison system and mental health treatment, utilizing theoretical perspectives to contextualize this proposal in the present state of affairs. Lastly, the evidence is provided to emphasize the potential economic and social benefits of improving mental …

The Costs Of Uncertainty: The Doj’S Stalled Progress On Accessible Medical Equipment Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

Imagine seeking medical care for serious pressure sores for a year, but your doctor never examining the sores because you could not get on the examination table in her office. Or imagine going more than fifteen years without an annual well-woman examination for the same reason, or your doctor guessing at the right dosage for a prescription because there was no scale that she could use to weigh you.

Although these scenarios may be difficult for many to imagine, they are common experiences for individuals with mobility disability. The Trump administration’s attacks on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act …

Unlocking Access To Health Care: A Federalist Approach To Reforming Occupational Licensing, Gabriel Scheffler

Articles

No abstract provided.

Knowledge Of Practicing Physicians About Their Legal Obligations When Caring For Patients With Disability, Nicole Agaronnik, Elizabeth Pendo, Julie Ressalam, Eric G. Campbell, Lisa Iezzoni

All Faculty Scholarship

doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05060 HEALTH AFFAIRS 38, NO. 4 (2019): 545–553

The False Promise Of Health Data Ownership, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years there have been increasing calls by patient advocates, health law scholars and would-be data intermediaries to recognize personal property interests in individual health information (IHI). While the propertization of IHI appeals to notions of individual autonomy, privacy and distributive justice, the implementation of a workable property system for IHI presents significant challenges. This essay addresses the issues surrounding the propertization of IHI from a property law perspective. It first observes that IHI does not fit recognized judicial criteria for recognition as personal property, as IHI defies convenient definition, is difficult to possess exclusively, and lacks justifications for …

Masthead, Volume 29 (2019)

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Liability (And) Rules For Health Information, Jorge L. Contreras, Francisca Nordfalk

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

The recent trend toward propertization of health data could pose significant challenges to biomedical research and public health. Property rule systems can result in sizable up-front costs in the acquisition of consent from individual data subjects, as well as the ongoing risk that data subjects will retract consent or object to unanticipated data uses, thus compromising existing data resources and analyses. Instead, we propose that research using individual health data should be subject to a regulatory regime, enforceable by government/public repositories, while at the same time permitting private enforcement actions to address particularized individual injury. Thus, while the physical collection …

How Failure To Protect Laws Punish The Vulnerable, Amanda Mahoney

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

50 Shades Of Data Sharing: How A Uniform Fifty-State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Can Restore Discretion To Opioid Prescribers And Autonomy To Chronic Pain Patients, Allyson Cady

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Everyone Bleeds Guilty: Blood Draws For Law Enforcement Purposes In Light Of The Hipaa Privacy Rule And Recent Supreme Court Decisions, 52 Uic J. Marshall L. Rev. 489 (2019), Bianca Valdez

UIC Law Review

Intoxicated driving claims more than 10,000 lives per year. In efforts to combat this devastating statistic, states have enacted laws that permit law enforcement officers to order warrantless blood draws from suspects of driving under the influence. In doing so, law enforcement officers seek the assistance of medical personnel to carry out the phlebotomy process. While medical personnel are obliged to assist law enforcement with their investigations, they also have an ethical duty to their patient and a legal duty to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. What are the legal implications when the suspect …

Investigating Potentially Unlawful Death Under International Law: The 2016 Minnesota Protocol, Christof Heyns, Stuart Casey-Maslen, Toby Fisher, Sarah Knuckey, Thomas Probert, Morris Tidball-Binz

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Conflicts Of Interest And Academic Research, Jorge L. Contreras, Mark Rinehart

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This chapter discusses financial conflicts of interest in academic research. After exploring the definition of conflicts of interest, the chapter focuses on the manner in which conflicts are addressed by policies promulgated by the U.S. federal government, research institutions and scholarly journals. It concludes with suggestions for further research and policy analysis.

Constitutional Cohesion And The Right To Public Health, James G. Hodge, Daniel G. Aaron, Haley R. Auger, Ashley Cheff, Joseph Daval

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Despite years of significant legal improvements stemming from a renaissance in public health law, Americans still face major challenges and barriers in assuring their communal health. Reversals of legal reforms coupled with maligned policies and chronic underfunding contribute to diminished public health outcomes. Underlying preventable morbidity and mortality nationally are realities of our existing constitutional infrastructure. In essence, there is no general obligation of government to protect or promote the public’s health. Under principles of “constitutional cohesion,” structural facets and rights-based principles interwoven within the Constitution protect individuals and groups from governmental vices (i.e., oppression, overreaching, tyranny, and malfeasance). Structural …

Abortion Talk, Clare Huntington

Michigan Law Review

Review of Carol Sanger's About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in Twenty-First-Century America.

Constitutional Cohesion And The Right To Public Health, James G. Hodge Jr., Daniel Aaron, Haley R. Augur, Ashley Cheff, Joseph Daval, Drew Hensley

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Despite years of significant legal improvements stemming from a renaissance in public health law, Americans still face major challenges and barriers in assuring their communal health. Reversals of legal reforms coupled with maligned policies and chronic underfunding contribute to diminished public health outcomes. Underlying preventable morbidity and mortality nationally are realities of our existing constitutional infrastructure. In essence, there is no general obligation of government to protect or promote the public’s health. Under principles of “constitutional cohesion,” structural facets and rights-based principles interwoven within the Constitution protect individuals and groups from governmental vices (i.e., oppression, overreaching, tyranny, and malfeasance). Structural …

Table Of Contents

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Could We Pass The Ada Today?: Disability Rights In An Age Of Partisan Polarization, Michael Waterstone

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Could We Pass The Ada Today? Disability Rights In An Age Of Partisan Polarization, Tony Coelho

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Would The Ada Pass Today?: Disability Rights In An Age Of Partisan Polarization, Laura Rothstein

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was the most significant civil rights legislation enacted since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It provided comprehensive protection against discrimination for individuals with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, and public services. It built on § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act that provided these protections only to programs receiving federal financial assistance. It afforded broad access to those individuals who had benefitted from the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This complex and far-reaching legislation was made possible by a confluence of timing and the right people at the right place at …

Threats To Medicaid And Health Equity Intersection, Mary Crossley

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

The year 2017 proved politically tumultuous in the U.S. on many fronts, but perhaps none more so than health care. For enrollees in the Medicaid program, it was a “year of living precariously.” Long-promised Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act also took aim at Medicaid, with proposals to fundamentally restructure the program and drastically cut its federal funding. These proposals provoked pushback from multiple fronts, including formal opposition from groups representing people with disabilities and people of color and individual protesters. Opposition by these groups should not have surprised the proponents of “reforming” Medicaid. Both people of color …

The Costs Of Uncertainty: The Doj’S Stalled Progress On Accessible Medical Equipment Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Elizabeth Pendo

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

A State’S Effort To Enhance Health Care: Empowering Pharmacists With Prescribing Authority, Madhav Y. Bhatt

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

High rates of unintended pregnancies and costs associated with them have been a concern for the health care system in the U.S. The State of Oregon took a unique approach to reduce unintended pregnancy rates within its borders. Oregon enacted a statute that authorized pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives, which expanded the scope of practice of pharmacists. This Article explores whether states, instead of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), should regulate the scope of practice of health care professionals. This Article further explores the impact of Oregon’s law on access to hormonal contraceptives, safety of women’s health, and costs …

Medical Marijuana And The Ada: Following The Path Blazed By State Courts To Extend Protection, Stephen M. Scannell

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

Thirty-three states across the country have legalized the use of medical marijuana for disabled individuals. Nevertheless, medical marijuana’s status in the workplace still faces significant uncertainty, because the current understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) categorizes medical marijuana use as an “illegal use of drugs.” Thus, the ADA provides no protection for disabled employees seeking to treat their condition with medical marijuana. In recent years, courts deciding cases involving state medical marijuana and anti-discrimination statutes have brought a more patient-centered and pragmatic approach to the issue. These courts have offered an interpretation of the “illegal use of drugs” …

Dirty Little Secrets: Fracking Fluids, Dubious Trade Secrets, Confidential Contamination, And The Public Health Information Vacuum, Elliot Fink

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

While the carbon energy industry has frequently claimed that hydraulic fracturing processes and ingredients are proprietary and protected by trade secret laws, their large scale and volume nationwide and the well-documented dangers that they pose to public health have brought fracking under scrutiny. When individuals have been adversely impacted in their own backyards, weak federal and state laws and regulation have generally left these impacted citizens with little to no recourse and part of this problem stems from questionable uses of privacy law, specifically dubious claims of trade secrecy. Focusing specifically on Pennsylvania as a model of insufficient state regulation …

Exploring Legal And Policy Responses To Opioids: America's Worst Public Health Emergency, James G. Hodge Jr., Chelsea Gulinson, Leila F. S. Barraza, Walter G. Johnson, Drew Hensley, Haley R. Augur

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Undue Hardship" And Uninsured Americans: How Access To Healthcare Should Impact Student-Loan Discharge In Bankruptcy, Alexander Gouzoules

Faculty Publications

Student-loan debt has grown to unprecedented heights. Contributing to the severe burden imposed by these debts is the Bankruptcy Code’s unique presumption that they are not dischargeable. To overcome that presumption, a debtor must establish that repayment of her loans would constitute an “undue hardship.” This essay examines the disagreement among bankruptcy courts that have interpreted the “undue hardship” standard in situations where a debtor is unable to afford health insurance—a common occurrence among the economically disadvantaged. After examining recent healthcare reforms, I argue that Congress has expressed a judgment that all Americans should obtain minimum essential healthcare. Though this …