Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Mental Health Courts: Is There Any Hope For Mental Illness In An Outdated Criminal Justice System?, Brock Imel

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Mental health awareness is an ever-growing field of study that has garnered more attention in America after the COVID-19 pandemic. As far back as colonial America, mental illness was considered taboo in society and often reprimanded with punishable crimes. This article seeks to divulge into the history of mental health and its relation to the law, as well as how the creation of mental health courts has led to a decrease in recidivism.

This article aims to provide the reader with an understanding of the evolving field of mental health courts and provide state legislatures foundational knowledge for creating and …

Prescription For Failure: Public Nuisance Claims Against The Opioid Industry, Francis A. Citera, Julia Steiner

University of Miami Law Review

Opioids have been used both medicinally and recreationally since ancient times. While their recreational functions have long since been denounced, their medicinal value remains legitimate. Yet, since the pain management revolution began in the mid-1990s, many Americans have become opioid-dependent—fueling an illicit drug market and costing many lives. The tragedy that is today’s opioid epidemic has prompted robust federal and state legislative and regulatory interventions in both the legal and illicit opioid markets—albeit with mixed success. As these initiatives have been slow to quell the opioid crisis, public nuisance claims have taken center stage. After the Big Tobacco litigation invoked …

Congressional Tribal Trust Responsibility And The Opioid Mdl: A Call To Finish The Work The Judiciary Was Forced To Undertake, Curtis E. Osceola Esq.

University of Miami Law Review

Congressional inaction has forced Native American Tribes to utilize the judiciary as a last resort to obtain relief from the crippling effects of the opioid epidemic. Tribes have received inadequate funding from settlements to abate the widespread use of prescription opiates on and around their lands of concern. Hundreds of mass tort lawyers have been navigating the In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation (MDL 2804)—one of the largest and most valuable litigation pools in the history of the Republic—in an effort to provide relief for cities and counties, individuals, consumers, hospitals, third-party payors, and federally recognized Tribes. Based on …

Decriminalizing Disease: A Health Justice Approach To Infectious Diseases And Criminal Law, Sean E. Bland

Arkansas Law Review

Infectious diseases, also called communicable diseases, are largely a public health issue and should not be criminalized. This Article seeks to re-frame the discussion around the legal framework for infectious diseases in a way that moves beyond a punishment mindset and toward a health justice mindset. The focus in this Article is on health justice rather than traditional understandings of public health, defined as the science and practice of improving the health of people and their communities. The Article makes three novel contributions. First, it applies a health justice framework to the critique of infectious disease criminalization. Second, the Article …

The Healing Power Of Antitrust, Theodosia Stavroulaki

Northwestern University Law Review

Millions of Americans live in hospital deserts—communities where people lack geographic access to hospitals and primary care physicians. People living in these deserts often miss doctor appointments, delay necessary care, and stop adhering to their treatment. In this way, hospital deserts exacerbate the health disparities plaguing America. This Article demonstrates that hospital deserts are not inevitable but the result of several business strategies—including noncompete agreements and merging with competitors—and antitrust enforcers’ unwillingness to recognize these harmful practices as antitrust violations. To cure the issue of hospital deserts, this Article makes three proposals. First, antitrust enforcers and the courts should expand …

January 15, 2025 — Welcome Letter To Members Of The 119th Congress, American Dental Association

Advocacy in Action letters

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Corona Pandemic On Crime Within The Family From The Researchers’ Point Of View In The Ministry Of Social Development In The Southern West Bank, Kifah Manasra, Muhammad Okkeh

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

The study aimed to identify the extent to which the family crimes in the Palestinian society are spread due to the Corona pandemic. It also aimed to reveal the psychological, economic and social effects of the Corona pandemic on the crimes within the family in the Palestinian society in the Southern West Bank. The researcher s used a questionnaire to collect the data and the descriptive approach to analyze it. The purposive sample consisted of (74) researchers from the total population which was (120) researchers from the Ministry of Social Development in the governorates of Hebron and Bethlehem in the …

Table Of Contents, Annals Of Health Law & Life Sciences

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Megan Baumgardner

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Band-Aid Solution: The Need For A Better Treatment Plan For The Physician Burnout Crisis, Sarah Mangroo

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Annals Of Health Law & Life Sciences

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Megan Baumgardner

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Imperfect Access: Structural Barriers And External Threats To Preventative Care, Richard Hughes Iv, Dorit R. Reiss

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Dignity In Detention: Addressing Gynecological Healthcare Needs Of People Detained By U.S. Immigration Authorities, Glykeria Teji, Esq., Shira Wisotsky, Esq.

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

People who require gynecological and obstetric care and who are detained by U.S. federal immigration authorities face unique challenges. This article examines how the current legal and administrative landscape fails to hold those responsible for providing healthcare accountable, effectively blocking access to gynecological care, and, assuming no immediate abolition of immigrant detention facilities, how international human law principles can and should guide a reimagining of the system. We also propose interim steps that U.S. authorities can take to protect access to basic and needed gynecological care for the people that they detain. Beginning with an overview of immigration detention as …

Defending Olmstead: Strategies For Combatting Institutional Bias To Improve Access To Mental Health Services In The Least Restrictive Setting, Craig Ismaili, Esq., Adrienne Langlois, Esq., Bren Pramanik, Esq.

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Transformative Experiences, Anticipatory Regret, And Informed Consent, Elizabeth Lanphier, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

Regret risk is not consistently part of information sharing within informed consent. Yet two kinds of decisions that often invoke concerns about future regret, abortion and sterilization, raise considerations for the role of regret in clinical decision-making and informed consent, particularly regarding decisions about potentially transformative experiences. We distinguish between first-personal and second-personal anticipatory regret and argue that first-personal anticipatory regret can play a productive role, but second-personal anticipatory regret can function in ways that are pernicious. Introducing second-personal anticipatory regret into medical informed consent processes is, we argue, not only not required for informed medical decision-making, but impermissible within …

Medicare Mandates For Shared Decision Making With Patient Decision Aids: Linking Payment To Preference, Thaddeus Mason Pope, Jd, Phd

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

Since 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has increasingly required shared decision making with evidence-based patient decision aids as an essential Medicare condition for payment. CMS is doing this because it recognizes that most healthcare is preference sensitive and value laden. So, whether treatment is “right” or “beneficial” for a patient is not only a matter of clinical expertise. It equally depends on the patient’s values, preferences, and goals. So, CMS wants to ensure that patients understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives to the healthcare that they receive and for which CMS pays. In short, under its …

Reducing Discrimination In Organ Transplant Candidacy Evaluation Against Persons Who Use Drugs, Hannah Rahim, Bhsc

Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences

Many organ transplant centers deny persons who use drugs eligibility for receiving a transplant because of concerns about the impact of drugs on transplant success. These policies are often not based on sufficient medical evidence and are highly variable between transplant centers. Restricting persons who use drugs from organ transplantation can exacerbate existing racial and geographic inequities in access to organ transplantation. This paper explores discrimination against persons who use drugs in organ transplantation. I examine when considering a patient’s drug use in organ transplant eligibility assessment is illegal and when it is immoral and I offer recommendations for statutory, …

The Supreme Court During Covid-19: Keeping Its Head When Those About It Were Losing Theirs, Timothy C. Macdonnell

Scholarly Articles

Alexander Hamilton's Federalist No. 78 suggests that one of the reasons for a life-tenured judiciary whose pay cannot be altered is because "judges may be an essential safeguard against the effects of occasional ill humours in the society." Our Nation's history is replete with instances of ill humor leading to violations of constitutional rights. Wars, epidemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, and economic crises all demand governments to act and act swiftly. But courts, and particularly the United States Supreme Court, are necessary to check governments when they go too far in contending with an emergency.

Historically the country's courts have …

Patient Autonomy, Public Safety, And Drivers With Cognitive Decline, Sharona Hoffman, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Faculty Publications

With a growing elderly population, cognitive decline in drivers has become a significant public safety concern. Currently, over thirty-two million individuals who are seventy or older have driver’s licenses, and that number is growing quickly. In addition, almost ten percent of U.S. seniors (those sixty-five and older) have dementia, and an additional twenty-two percent have mild cognitive impairment. Between a quarter and a half of individuals with mild to moderate dementia still drive. As cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, and decision-making skills deteriorate, a driver's ability to operate a vehicle safely can be compromised. This not only puts the …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Antitrust In The Health Care Sector, Doug Ross

Chapters in Books

This chapter is an opportunity for students to apply the concepts addressed elsewhere in the book, but at a deeper level and in the context of a sector that accounts for a very large share of antitrust activity on the part of government enforcers and private plaintiffs. The topics chosen illustrate some of the nuances in applying antitrust law in the real world and show how the application of antitrust principles has evolved over time. The chapter also raises important policy questions regarding how to apply antitrust to a sector that is rife with market failures, including what tools and …

Abundance And Other Food Fixations, Margot J. Pollans

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Although most people in the United States no longer devote the majority of their time to food production, processing, and distribution, food remains a daily fixation. This Article explores three driving food fixations--abundance, thinness, and health--and situates each against an inverse fear--scarcity, fatness, and illness, respectively. Mapping these threats onto U.S. food policy, this Article examines, among other policy arenas, food waste policy, nutrition and health claim labeling law, and food additive regulations. Across food policy, these fixations feed what this Article calls the “politics of abundance.” This politics helps to insulate the food industry from deeper systemic reform aimed …

Consequences Of Artificial Intelligence In Health Insurance: Lawsuits, Policy, And Ethics, Alyssa N. Roberts

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In recent years, the healthcare system has been burdened by a multitude of obstacles that hinder the ability to provide effective, affordable, and timely care. Among these, one of the most significant challenges is the role that health insurance plays in shaping the quality of care. Health insurance companies are designed to decrease financial strain on patients, but they have introduced inefficiencies through delayed coverage approvals, increased denials, and administrative costs. Artificial intelligence (AI) has started to play an integral role in resolving these issues for the health insurance industry. Through its quick automated claim processing, fraud screening, and reduced …

Navigating The Legal Risk Universities’ Healthcare Providers Potentially Face From Medical Decisions Impacting Collegiate Athletes’ Future Nil Income While Following The Ncaa’S Mental Health Best Practices, Kenneth D. Ferguson

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cronyism In Creating Chronic Disease—A Path To Food Justice, Martha Leonard

St. Thomas Law Review

Central to this discussion is a quote often attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Today, physicians recognize the crucial role of diet in maintaining good health and preventing chronic disease, but U.S. laws fail to reflect this understanding. The health field has seen significant progress in scientific research on pathology; however, nutritional research presents a challenging and contradictory landscape. Corporate influence in scientific research leads to a lack of consensus on the most optimal diet for promoting general health, presenting a challenge for policymaking. The dark reality is that …

Don’T Trust The Process: The Viability Of Eighth Amendment Claims For Ultra-Processed Food Overconsumption In Prisons, Markus C. Johnson, Rita L. Rahoi-Gilchrest

Marquette Law Review

With the largest prison population worldwide, American prisons serve more food than anywhere else. To cut costs, American prisons overwhelmingly (or even entirely) serve prisoners ultra-processed foods, which, if overconsumed, have detrimental and long-lasting health effects. Prisoners taking issue with the food being served to them rely on the courts to counteract any inappropriate prison dietary practices, wielding the Eighth Amendment as a constitutional guarantee to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. But courts are failing to protect this constitutional guarantee by relying on precedent that is at odds with modern Eighth Amendment principles. Indeed, when it comes to …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …