Health Law and Policy Commons^™

FacebookʼS Latest Attempt To Address Vaccine Misinformation — And Why ItʼS Not Enough, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

On October 13, 2020 Facebook announced the adoption of a series of measures to promote vaccine trust “while prohibiting ads with misinformation that could harm public health efforts.” In the post written by Kang-Xing Jin (head of health) and Rob Leathern (director of product management), the company explained that the new measures were designed with an emphasis on encouraging widespread use of this yearʼs flu vaccine, as well as in anticipation of potential COVID-19 vaccines becoming available in the near future.

The changes focus mainly on the establishment of a multiprong informational campaign about the seasonal flu vaccine, which includes …

Telehealth And Telework Accessibility In A Pandemic-Induced Virtual World, Blake Reid, Christian Vogler, Zainab Alkebsi

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

This short essay explores one dimension of disability law’s COVID-related “frailty”: how the pandemic has undermined equal access to employment and healthcare for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing as healthcare and employment migrate toward telehealth and telework activities. This essay’s authors—a clinical law professor; a computer scientist whose research focuses on accessible technology; and a deaf policy attorney for the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by, and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States—have collaborated over the past months on detailed advocacy documents aimed at helping deaf and hard of hearing patients …

Litigating An Epidemic: California Plaintiffs In The National Opioid Litigation, Samantha T. Pannier

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Can litigation solve a public health epidemic? The opioid epidemic has cost California 24,885 lives, $4.3 billion, and counting. As a result, over 500 California cities, counties, and sovereign Indian tribes are engaged in civil litigation against over twenty different opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies for their role in creating and profiting from an epidemic of addiction. Cases brought by California plaintiffs account for about 20 percent of all ongoing opioid litigation nationally. This Note situates the claims of three California plaintiffs— the State, the County of Mariposa, and the City of Los Angeles—within the context of the ongoing national …

Shifting The Burden On Pay-For-Delay Challenges: Analyzing Ab 824’S Effects On Reverse Payment Settlements And Drug Costs, Kevin Wallentine

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Antitrust scholars and agencies have recognized the anticompetitive impact of reverse payment settlements—in which branded and generic drug companies settle patent disputes, typically by delaying the entry of generics into the market. Despite clear competition concerns, these settlements are typically subject to a rule of reason analysis that puts the burden on enforcers and plaintiffs to prove their anticompetitive harms. Recent California legislation—AB 824—shifts the burden to the settling drug companies to prove their arrangement is not anticompetitive. AB 824 presents an opportunity for advocates of lower drug costs but still faces hurdles and shortfalls. This Note examines the efficacy …

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …

The Role Of The Opioid Crisis In Elder Abuse, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Jennifer Pratt, Stuart Bratesman Mpp

Disability & Aging

As the opioid crisis has deepened over the past twenty years, its effect on individuals and families, including older adults, has grown. To find out how the opioid crisis might be impacting elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in Maine, we conducted a mixed methods analysis of 2015-2018 Maine Adult Protective Services (APS) investigations to determine: 1) Did opioid-related investigations increase over time? 2) Do investigations involving opioid misuse or abuse differ from investigations that don’t involve opioids? 3) What themes or features of cases involving opioid misuse or abuse by clients and/or perpetrators emerge from the data?

Key Findings: The …

J Mich Dent Assoc November 2020

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• Feature articles on how “Routine Blood Lead Testing During Pregnancy Empowers Future Dental Caries and Neurotoxicity Research”, how to “Recoup Your Dues and More with MDA-Endorsed Programs”, and your “2021 MDA Membership Benefits Guide”.
• News you need, Editorial and regular department articles on MDA Foundation activities, Dentistry and the Law, Staff Matters, 10-Minute EBD, Headquarters …

Pricing The Global Health Risks Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Policies to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) require a balancing of the health risk reductions and the costs of economic dislocations. Application of the value of a statistical life (VSL) to monetize COVID-19 deaths produces a U.S. mortality cost estimate of $1.4 trillion for deaths in the first half of 2020. This article presents worldwide COVID-19 costs for over 100 countries. The total global mortality cost through July 2, 2020 is $3.5 trillion. The United States accounts for 25% of the deaths, but 41% of the mortality cost. Adjustments for the shorter life expectancy and lower income of the …

Medical Disputes And Conflicting Values: Is There A “Right To Die” Later?, Janet L. Dolgin

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma V. Purdue Pharma: Public Nuisance In Your Medicine Cabinet, Justin Kaufman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Untag Me: Why Federal Judges Are Broadly Construing Illinois’S Biometric Privacy Law, Lisa P. Angeles

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Interprofessional Approach To Teaching Advocacy Skills: Lessons From An Academic Medical-Legal Partnership, Vicki W. Girard, Eileen S. Moore, Lisa P. Kessler, Deborah F. Perry, Yael Cannon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Medical students and educators recognize that preparing the next generation of health leaders to address seemingly intractable problems like health disparities should include advocacy training. Opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to effectively advocate at the policy level to promote systems-, community-, and population-level solutions are a critical component of such training. But formal advocacy training programs that develop and measure such skills are scarce. Even less common are interprofessional advocacy training programs that include legal and policy experts to help medical students learn such skills.

This 2016–2017 pilot study started with a legislative advocacy training program for …

Health Policy In The Supreme Court And A New Conservative Majority, Lawrence O. Gostin, Wendy E. Parmet, Sara Rosenbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Viewpoint looks at the range of medical and public health issues that could be adversely affected by appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court, including weakening or elimination of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid work requirements that could reduce eligibility, and reduced reproductive rights and governmental public health emergency powers.

How Congress Can Help Raise Vaccine Rates, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Y. Tony Yang

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

2019 saw an unusually high number of measles cases, and other preventable disease outbreaks, at least in part linked to vaccines refusal. States are considering legislative responses. This Essay examines what role the federal government can fill in increasing vaccines rates. The Essay suggests that the federal government has an important role to fill in funding research, coordination, and local efforts. It also suggests that a federal school vaccine mandate is likely not the solution: first, such mandates can run into plausible constitutional challenges, and second, there are policy arguments against it. The policy contentions include the unfairness of imposing …

Tuberculosis, Human Rights, And Law Reform: Addressing The Lack Of Progress In The Global Tuberculosis Response, Matthew M. Kavanagh, Lawrence O. Gostin, John Stephens

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly convened the first-ever high-level meeting (HLM) on tuberculosis (TB). Since that time news on the world’s most lethal infectious disease is not good—the 2019 WHO TB report shows 1.2 million people died from TB, a number that has fallen just 11% since 2015, less than one-third of the way towards the End TB Strategy milestone of a 35% reduction (to about 850 million deaths) by 2020. The same number of people, 10.0 million, are estimated to have fallen ill with TB in 2018 as in 2017. The stubborn persistence of TB is attributable …

Good Health And Good Privacy Go Hand-In-Hand (Originally Published By Jnslp), Jennifer Daskal

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

A Global Survey Of Potential Acceptance Of A Covid-19 Vaccine, Jeffrey V. Lazarus, Scott C. Ratzan, Adam Palayew, Lawrence O. Gostin, Heidi J. Larson, Kenneth Rabin, Spencer Kimball, Ayman El-Mohandes

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Several coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are currently in human trials. In June 2020, we surveyed 13,426 people in 19 countries to determine potential acceptance rates and factors influencing acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Of these, 71.5% of participants reported that they would be very or somewhat likely to take a COVID-19 vaccine, and 61.4% reported that they would accept their employer’s recommendation to do so. Differences in acceptance rates ranged from almost 90% (in China) to less than 55% (in Russia). Respondents reporting higher levels of trust in information from government sources were more likely to accept a vaccine …

Meaning, Biology And Identity: The Rights Of Children, Anika Smith

Catholic University Law Review

Sperm and egg donation in the United States is only loosely regulated, and the current regime privileges the anonymity of the adult donor over the child’s right to identity. The majority of people conceived through anonymous donation do not support the practice but find their rights abrogated by contracts made by their intentional and biological parents. Donor reliance on the anonymity guaranteed by those contracts is shifting as at-home genetic testing limits their expectation of privacy, with more biological ties being discovered by children conceived through gamete donation. This Comment explores the child’s right to identity in family law cases, …

Is It Lawful And Ethical To Prioritize Racial Minorities For Covid-19 Vaccines?, Harald Schmidt, Lawrence O. Gostin, Michelle A. Williams

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected racial minorities in the United States resulting in higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death. With a limited supply after the initial approval of a safe and effective vaccine, difficult legal and ethical choices will have to be made on priority access for individuals. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has recommended prioritization of racial minorities who are “worse off” socioeconomically and epidemiologically. TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) similarly cautioned that “colorblind” allocation frameworks could perpetuate or exacerbate existing injustices. Both NASEM and WHO urge policy makers to allocate vaccines in …

Public Policy Origins Of U.S. Data, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides detailed introduction and overview of public policy origins of U.S. data. Shows how congressional legislation and Office of Management and Budget documents influence compilation and dissemination of U.S. Government data. Stresses how Indiana General Assembly requirements influence compilation of Indiana state agency data and Indiana local government agency data. Places emphasis on roles played in data compilation and dissemination by public policy research institutions/think tanks. Concludes by stressing limitations of data collection by governmental and non-governmental entities.

Reimagining Disability: The Screening Of Donor Gametes And Embryos In Ivf, Isabel Karpin, Roxanne Mykitiuk

Articles & Book Chapters

In this article,we examine how disability is figured in the imaginaries that are given shape by the reproductive projects and parental desires facilitated by the bio-medical techniques and practices of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) that involve selection and screening for disability. We investigate how some users of ARTs understand and deploy these imaginaries in ways that are both concordant with and resistant to the understanding of disability embedded within the broader sociotechnical and social imaginaries. It is through users’ deliberations, choices, responses, and expectations that we come to understand how these imaginaries are perpetuated and resisted, and how maintaining them …

“Waiving” Goodbye To Medicaid As We Know It: Modern State Attempts To Transform Medicaid Programs Through Section 1115 Waivers, Chandler Gray

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This Note explores recent state efforts to reshape their respective Medicaid programs through Section 1115 waivers. Specifically, this Note looks at states that wish to convert their Medicaid program to a block grant through Section 1115 waivers. Examining the lawfulness of these waivers requires analyzing the language and application of both the Medicaid Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. This Note argues that any use of Section 1115 waivers to implement a block grant program would be a violation of the Medicaid Act and thus unlawful. Further, federal approval of such programs would be deemed arbitrary and capricious. To justify …

Introduction A Bold Agenda For The Next Steps In Health Reform, Lindsay Wiley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Introduction: In the aftermath of the largely failed Clinton-era health reform push and the build-up to Obamaera reforms, experts worried that another failed effort could cast a ten-year shadow. The tenth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act offered an opportunity for participants in the 2019 Next Steps in Health Reform conference to reflect. If the ACA proves resilient, what paths will it have paved for the next decade of reforms?

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Fall 2020

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Months Into The Covid-19 Pandemic, Community Health Centers Report Signs Of Improvement, But Face Financial Uncertainty, Jessica Sharac, James Hernandez, Feygele Jacobs, Peter Shin

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

Executive Summary:

This policy brief reports on the COVID-19 experience of the nation’s community health centers over a six-month period, utilizing data from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey from April 3rd, 2020 to October 2nd, 2020. The data demonstrate that community health centers were immediately responsive to the public health crisis, initiating diagnostic testing for the COVID-19 virus, and adapting care such as telehealth to address patient needs. However, with visits down overall and limited financial relief, the pandemic has taken an enormous financial toll on health centers. Cumulative patient revenue losses over …

Medical Marijuana: Implications Of Evolving Trends In Regulation, Florence Shu-Acquaye

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Social Solidarity In Health Care, American-Style, Erin C. Fuse Brown, Matthew B. Lawrence, Elizabeth Mccuskey, Lindsay F. Wiley

Faculty Scholarship

The ACA shifted U.S. health policy from centering on principles of actuarial fairness toward social solidarity. Yet four legal fixtures of the health care system have prevented the achievement of social solidarity: federalism, fiscal pluralism, privatization, and individualism. Future reforms must confront these fixtures to realize social solidarity in health care, American-style.

Paying For Unapproved Medical Products, Kelly Mcbride Folkers, Alison Bateman-House, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

This symposium article examines the use of investigational (un-approved) medical products in the United States, with particular focus on who pays for this use. In the United States, the question of who pays for the use of approved medical products for their intended indications is complicated enough, with some expenses borne by private payers, some by public payers, some covered as charity care, and some paid out of pocket by patients. A separate question is off-label use, in which an approved medical product is used for an unapproved indication. In this article, we focus on a narrower issue: what entities …

Covid-19 And Its Impact On America's Retirement System, David M. English

Faculty Publications

There is a long-standing debate over whether America's retirement system is in crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has resolved the debate. Perhaps the system was merely challenged prior to March 2020, but it is certainly in crisis now. The pandemic has negatively impacted all four of the principal pillars of retirement: Social Security, employer-sponsored retirement programs, earnings from part-time work, and the worker's own savings. This short article will discuss the impact of the pandemic on the retirement system and discuss possible ways to restore the system to health or at least ameliorate the damage.

Striving For The Mountaintop: The Elimination Of Health Disparities In A Time Of Retrenchment (1968-2018), Gwendolyn R. Majette

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Health disparities in the United States are real. People of color are the adverse beneficiaries of these facts-lower life expectancy, higher rates of morbidity and mortality, and poorer health outcomes in general. This Article analyzes the laws and policies that improve and create barriers to improving people of color's health since the death of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. The Article builds upon my earlier scholarship and considers the effectiveness of the "PPACA Framework to Eliminate Health Disparities" since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was enacted in 2010.

The Article also explores the impact of …