Health Law and Policy Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

Setting The Standard: Multidisciplinary Hallmarks For Structural, Equitable And Tracked Antibiotic Policy, Claas Kirchhelle, Paul Atkinson, Alex Broom, Komatra Chuengsatiansup, Jorge Pinto Ferreira, Nicolas Fortané, Isabel Frost, Christoph Gradmann, Stephen Hinchliffe, Steven J. Hoffman, Javier Lezaun, Susan Nayiga, Scott H. Podolsky, Kevin Outterson, Stephanie Raymond, Adam P. Roberts, Andrew C. Singer, Anthony D. So, Luechai Sringernyuang, Elizabeth Tayler, Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, Clare I. R. Chandler

Faculty Scholarship

There is increasing concern globally about the enormity of the threats posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to human, animal, plant and environmental health. A proliferation of international, national and institutional reports on the problems posed by AMR and the need for antibiotic stewardship have galvanised attention on the global stage. However, the AMR community increasingly laments a lack of action, often identified as an ‘implementation gap’. At a policy level, the design of internationally salient solutions that are able to address AMR’s interconnected biological and social (historical, political, economic and cultural) dimensions is not straightforward. This multidisciplinary paper responds by …

Universal Masking In The United States: The Role Of Mandates, Health Education, And The Cdc, Lawrence O. Gostin, I. Glenn Cohen, Jeffrey P. Koplan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cloth face coverings in public settings to prevent spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Face coverings decrease the amount of infectious virus exhaled into the environment, reducing the risk an exposed person will become infected.1 Although many states and localities have ordered mask use, considerable variability and inconsistencies exist. Would a national mandate be an effective COVID-19 prevention strategy, and would it be lawful? Given the patchwork of state pandemic responses, should the CDC have enhanced funding and powers to …

Health Justice Is Racial Justice: A Legal Action Agenda For Health Disparities, Sheila Foster, Yael Cannon, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Acknowledging the urgency of both health and racial justice in this moment, Sheila Foster, Yael Cannon, and M. Gregg Bloche set forth a legal agenda to fight the health effects of racism in housing, policing, the environment, and other areas.

Postscript: Covid-19 And The Legal Determinants Of Health, John Coggon, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is a short postscript to the Public Health Ethics special issue on the legal determinants of health. We reflect briefly on emerging responses to COVID-19, and raise important questions of ethics and law that must be addressed; including through the lens of legal determinants, and with critical attention to what it means to protect health with justice.

Floating Lungs: Forensic Science In Self-Induced Abortion Prosecutions, Aziza Ahmed

Faculty Scholarship

Pregnancy that ends in stillbirth or late miscarriage—particularly where a person gives birth outside of a hospital—raises the specter of criminal behavior. To successfully prosecute a person for the death of a child, however, requires proving that the child was born alive. Prosecutors mobilize forensic science as an objective way to determine life. This Essay focuses on one such forensic method: the hydrostatic lung test (“HLT”), also known as the floating lung test (“FLT”). Although there are debates about the “correct” way to perform the exam, in essence, the test requires that a forensic scientist take pieces of the lung …

Private Schools' Role And Rights In Setting Vaccination Policy: A Constitutional And Statutory Puzzle, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

Measles and other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases are making a comeback, as a growing number of parents are electing not to vaccinate their children. May private schools refuse admission to these students? This deceptively simple question raises complex issues of First Amendment law and statutory interpretation, and it also has implications for other current hot-button issues in constitutional law, including whether private schools may discriminate against LGBTQ students. This Article is the first to address the issue of private schools’ rights to exclude unvaccinated children. It finds that the answer is “it depends.” It also offers a model law that states …

Whole Health: A Community Approach To Healthcare Keynote #2, Professor Larry Van Horn, Professor Leah R. Fowler

Belmont Health Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Whole Health: A Community Approach To Healthcare Panel, Tera Hambrick, Mark Ison, Dr. Jeanne James, Caitlyn Page, William Wright

Belmont Health Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Student Note: Help Us, Help You: Big Tech And The Future Of Personal Health Records, Clay Brewer

Belmont Health Law Journal

This note will address the issues that will inevitably arise as this convergence of tech and healthcare continue. Part I will discuss a few of the current laws and regulations that seek to protect personal health records in the United States’ and Europe, specifically in comparing the United States Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act (“HIPAA”) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”) with the European Union’s much broader response to data privacy concerns via the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). To follow, Part II will introduce three of the tech giants– Apple, Amazon, and …

Student Note: Blockchain For Dscha Compliance, Ryland Close

Belmont Health Law Journal

Part I of this Note will illustrate the problems posed by drug counterfeiting and drug diversion, describe current solutions being used to address these problems, and conclude with a discussion of federal legislation that seeks to fix these weaknesses in the pharmaceutical supply chain, focusing on the tracking and tracing requirements that the DSCSA imposes on supply chain participants. In Part II, this Note will examine the development of blockchain technology as well as examine its defining characteristics. Part III will explore current industry efforts to apply blockchain technology to supply chain uses and contends that blockchain is uniquely fit …

Student Note: Finding The Positive In A Positive Drug Test: How Narrowing The Definition Of An Individualized Pre-Employment Assessment Under The Ada Can Encourage Recovery From Opioid Dependence, Sarah Ferraro

Belmont Health Law Journal

This note will address the disparities in the way courts have analyzed the direct threat exception to ADA protection, and why a uniform application of the exception is crucial to both employers and those in recovery. Part I examines how opioids have devolved from an effective pain management tool to a national enemy. This section will answer common questions about why opioids are so addictive and why doctors prescribe them in the first place. It also addresses the scope of the ADA and the direct threat exception used to justify a decision not to hire a prescription drug user, as …

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission On Global Health And Law: The Power Of Law To Advance The Right To Health, Jenny Kaldor, Lawrence O. Gostin, John T. Monahan, Katie Gottschalk

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Lancet–O’Neill Institute/Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law published its report on the Legal Determinants of Health in 2019. The term ‘legal determinants of health’ draws attention to the power of law to influence upstream social and economic influences on population health. In this article, we introduce the Commission, including its background and rationale, set out its methodology, summarize its key findings and recommendations and reflect on its impact since publication. We also look to the future, making suggestions as to how the global health community can make the best use of the Commission’s momentum in relation …

Video: Nsu Law Health Care Policy Discussion, James Hodge Jr.

NSU Law Seminar Series

Florida regularly has been ground zero for election news during the 21st century. During elections in Florida, both individual and public health issues resonate strongly, because of the state’s demographics and history. Health care policy is certain to be a key issue in the upcoming election season.

To educate voters about a slate of core, national health law and public health law election issues, NSU Law will host national expert James G. Hodge, Jr., the Peter Kiewit Foundation Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University.

Do Bans Help Modern Public Health?, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A century ago, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution went into effect, banning the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” Fourteen years after its ratification, the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment. What did Prohibition teach us about banning hazardous products like alcohol, tobacco, or e-cigarettes?

Private Schools' Role And Rights In Setting Vaccination Policy: A Constitutional And Statutory Puzzle, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

Measles and other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases are making a comeback, as a growing number of parents are electing not to vaccinate their children. May private schools refuse admission to these students? This deceptively simple question raises complex issues of First Amendment law and statutory interpretation, and it also has implications for other current hot-button issues in constitutional law, including whether private schools may discriminate against LGBTQ students. This Article is the first to address the issue of private schools’ rights to exclude unvaccinated children. It finds that the answer is “it depends.” It also offers a model law that states …

Stopping The Resurgence Of Vaccine-Preventable Childhood Diseases: Policy, Politics, And Law, Hillel Y. Levin, Stacie Patrice Kershner, Timothy D. Lytton, Daniel Salmon, Saad B. Omer

Scholarly Works

Mandatory vaccination programs in the United States are generally successful, but their continued success is under threat. The ever-increasing number of parents who opt their children out of vaccination recommendations has caused severe outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Public health advocates have pushed for changes to state laws, but their efforts have generally been unsuccessful. We suggest that their lack of success is due to public health advocates’ failures to contend with the features of the political system that impede change and to propose reforms that are ethically defensible, efficacious, and politically feasible. Based on our earlier public health studies, ethical …

Is Tort Law The Tool For Fixing Reproductive Wrongs?, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

In his 2019 book, Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law, Dov Fox offers a compelling argument for new torts allowing recovery for wrongful reproduction. These torts would include three sorts of cases, those where wrongdoing (whether negligent, reckless, or intentional) caused undesired reproduction; stymied desired reproduction; or confounded reproduction, causing birth of a child different than that intended by the parents. The likely defendants in these torts are gynecologists, urologists, sperm banks, and IVF clinics.

Federalism, Erisa, And State Single-Payer Health Care, Erin C. Fuse Brown, Elizabeth Mccuskey

Faculty Scholarship

While federal health reform sputters, states have begun to pursue their own transformative strategies for achieving universal coverage, the most ambitious of which are state-based single-payer plans. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, legislators in twenty-one states have proposed sixty-six unique bills to establish single-payer health care systems. This paper systematically surveys those state legislative efforts and exposes the federalism trap that threatens to derail them: ERISA's preemption of state regulation relating to employer-sponsored health insurance. ERISA's expansive preemption provision creates a narrow, risky path for state regulation to capture the employer health care expenditures crucial …

Pedagogy And Policy: A Tribute To Karen Rothenberg’S Contributions To Health Law, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Karen Rothenberg has had a significant influence on my life, impacting my education, my career, and the way I think. Professor Rothenberg has been a pillar in the health law community, but perhaps her most lasting impact for myself was creating the health law program at the University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law. This nationally recognized program grew from her passion, expertise, and recognition of the importance of health, and is the reason I chose to attend the University of Maryland. The curriculum, faculty, and experience made it one of the best decisions of my life …

Designing Policy Solutions To Build A Healthier Rural America, Sameer Vohra, Carolyn Ponter, Amanda Fogleman, Thomas Albers, Anish Patel, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

Disparities exist in the livelihood and opportunities for people living in America’s rural communities. These differences result in a much sicker rural America compared to its urban counterpart. Rural counties have higher rates of smoking, obesity, child poverty, and teen pregnancies than urban counties. More uninsured adults live in rural areas, causing rural hospitals to close and/or cut vital services such as obstetrics care. Rural hospitals also provide fewer mental health services. The result is Americans living in rural areas are more likely to die from the five leading causes of death than those living in urban areas: heart disease, …

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

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Rationing Safe And Effective Covid-19 Vaccines: Allocating To States Proportionate To Population May Undermine Commitments To Mitigating Health Disparities, Harald Schmidt, Parag A. Pathak, Michelle A. Williams, Tayfun Sönmez, M. Utku Ünver, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A central goal in the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) framework for equitable COVID-19 vaccine allocation is to mitigate existing inequities, particularly those affecting economically worse-off racial and ethnic minorities. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) likewise notes that equity demands to “reduce, rather than increase, health disparities in each phase of vaccine distribution”. A crucial question in this regard is how vaccines should be distributed to states. The default is to allocate proportionate to population size. However, this approach risks increasing scarcity for worse-off populations in states where they represent above-average shares. To avoid lower …

Pandemic As Opportunity For Competence Restoration Decarceration, Susan A. Mcmahon

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Before the pandemic, a defendant found incompetent to stand trial was often stranded in jail for weeks or months as she waited for an inpatient bed to open at a psychiatric facility. While there, she usually received no treatment, her mental health deteriorated, and she was astonishingly likely to be abused and neglected. She almost certainly came out of jail in a worse state than she was when she went in.

The pandemic has made this desperate situation even worse. Now that wait in jail is both longer, as many psychiatric facilities stopped accepting new patients as they dealt with …

Narrowly Tailoring The Covid-19 Response, Craig Konnoth

Publications

No abstract provided.

Human Rights For Health Across The United Nations, Benjamin Mason Meier, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The United Nations (UN) plays a central role in realizing human rights to advance global health. Looking beyond state obligations, the UN has called on all its specialized agencies to mainstream human rights across all their activities. With globalization compelling these UN institutions to meet an expanding set of global challenges to underlying determinants of health, human rights are guiding these international organizations in addressing public health. These international organizations within the UN system are actively engaged in implementing health-related human rights—in both their mission and their actions to carry out that mission. Through this mainstreaming of human rights, global …

Brief Of Amici Curiae National Health Law Program And National Network Of Abortion Funds Supporting Petitioners-Cross-Respondents, Maya Manian, Jill E. Adams, Sara Ainsworth, Abigail K. Coursolle, Yvonne Lidgren, Sarah Somers, Melanie R. Medalle

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

No abstract provided.

Due Process Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.