Health Law and Policy Commons^™

News You Need, David Foe

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This news update summarizes MDA Board of Trustees activities, including the 2026 budget approval and legislative advocacy for licensure reform and Social Security privacy. It promotes National Children’s Dental Health Month and the biennial Mission of Mercy event. The news covers the appointment of a new Chief Experience Officer, the launch of the MDA Matters video podcast, and announcements for scholarships and award-winners.

Priority Without Progress: The Fda's Neglected Tropical Disease Voucher Program After 18 Years, Maple Goh, Kevin Outterson, Aaron Kesselheim

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: To incentivize drug and vaccine development for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), US Congress created the Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program in 2007. Sponsors that obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for an eligible product receive a voucher redeemable to accelerate review of another product.

Methods: We reviewed the program’s public health impact by examining all 14 vouchers awarded for NTD products between 2007 and 2024, including the timing of FDA approval relative to World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification, Essential Medicines List inclusion, first use in endemic countries, and voucher disposition.

Results: Eight (57%) achieved WHO …

Finding Luis: A Creative Nonfiction Account Of Law & Society, Jason M. Leggett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay explores the contradictions in legal theory and human experience through creative nonfiction. Its main purpose is to argue that a truly just society requires acknowledging the profound influence of individual narratives on the law. This is supported by blending personal narratives, critical analysis, and philosophical inquiry to reveal the gap between codified law and lived realities for marginalized individuals. This unique Legal Poetics methodology employs a series of six vignettes, such as the author's and Luis's shared experiences with traumatic brain injury and the denial of justice, as data. By integrating autoethnography, law as narrative, and performativity theories, …

Top Documenting Mistakes To Avoid: Reduce Your Risk Of A Malpractice Case, Jeff Spindler Mda Ifg, Lynda Farnen Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This month’s cover story addresses the critical importance of accurate patient records in reducing the risk of malpractice suits and Board of Dentistry discipline. It identifies common documenting errors, such as charting only abnormal findings, failing to identify the specific treatment provider, and omitting treatment discussions or drug administration details. The authors emphasize that documentation is a team-wide responsibility and offer guidance on correcting errors and adhering to record retention requirements.

“The Monster That Ate Jurisprudence”: The Misfire Of Civil Rico In Third-Party Payor Recovery, Jillian Rae Bloom

University of Miami Business Law Review

A law created to dismantle organized crime is now being misused to target pharmaceutical companies. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), originally intended to combat criminal enterprises, has since expanded far beyond its intended purpose. Third-party payors (TTPs), such as health insurers, have increasingly relied on RICO to sue pharmaceutical companies for deceptive marketing practices that allegedly cause significant financial harm. While it is important to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their fraudulent conduct, applying RICO in these cases represents a troublesome overreach. The link between the alleged fraud and TPPs alleged harm is too attenuated to meet …

Tracing The Truth: Strengthening U.S. Food Traceability With Lessons From The Eur. Union, Carolina Gomez

University of Miami Business Law Review

The United States (U.S.) has made significant progress in improving food traceability, with the FDA’s Final Food Traceability Rule set to take effect in 2026. This long-overdue regulation aims to improve outbreak response and better protect public health. However, major gaps in the U.S. traceability system remain, leaving consumers exposed to preventable foodborne illness outbreaks. Legislative challenges, including H.R. Bill 7563 and provisions in the Fiscal Year 2025 Agriculture Appropriations bill, threaten to delay or weaken these necessary reforms. Compounding these challenges, on August 7, 2025, the FDA proposed extending the compliance deadline for the rule by 30 months, to …

The Comstock Act: Will The First Amendment Finally Bury This Zombie Law’S Speech Restrictions?, Morgan Garces

University of Miami Law Review

The Comstock Act of 1873 is a federal anti-obscenity law that, along with lascivious and filthy literature, explicitly restricts the sending of anything that can be used to procure an abortion—including writing. However, since the decision of Roe v. Wade, the law’s abortion-speech provisions had been considered long-dead—although never officially being overturned. Now that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has rescinded the right to an abortion, the law appears to be reaching out from its grave. Anti-abortion activists are currently looking to the Comstock Act as a federal abortion ban already on the books because of its ban …

Diet: Another Piece Of The Crime Puzzle?, Jerrod Brown, Jeremiah Schimp, Leanne Skehan, Amanda Fenrich, Janina Cich

Nutritional Neurocriminology Today

An expanding body of research suggests that diet and nutrition may play an influential yet underrecognized role in problematic and criminal behaviors. This article synthesizes research linking excessive consumption of sugar and ultra-processed foods to adverse neurobehavioral outcomes, impaired impulse control, aggression, mood dysregulation, and sleep problems. Integrating research suggests that metabolic disruption, neuroinflammation, and gut–brain axis dysfunction may influence cognitive and emotional regulation. While criminal behavior is complex and multifactorial, this article emphasizes nutrition as a modifiable factor to inform forensic mental health practice, correctional policy, and rehabilitative strategies.

Roads To Regulation: A Discussion On Non-State Armed Groups' International Health Law Obligations, Eric Fogle

Journal of Law and Health

Non-state actors can look and operate like governments, yet without formal statehood, they exist in a regulatory gray area. Non state actors play an increasingly influential role in international law, yet they remain largely unregulated. This paper examines non-state actors as a class, with particular attention to non-State armed groups (NSAGs), and analyzes the regulatory gap they occupy specifically within international health law. The paper first surveys the rise, diversity, authority, and legitimacy of non-state actors in relation to States, highlighting their growing involvement in governance functions traditionally reserved for States. This paper then introduces the World Health Organization (WHO) …

Fda's New Approval Plan For Covid-19 Vaccines: An Inquiry Of "Benefit" Rather Than The Statutory Scope Of "Safety, Purity, And Potency"?, Henry Yat-Shing Kwan

Journal of Law and Health

This article analyzes the FDA's proposed policy plan issued in May 2025 regarding the approval of Covid-19 boosters for different groups of persons. It offers two constructive recommendations that will help prevent constitutionality challenge on impermissible intrusion of the freedom of health.

The first is to avoid using the confusing term "benefit" but instead focus on the statutory parameters of "safety, purity, and potency." The affected group can make a strong case that their free choice of vaccination should not be deprived, as long as the vaccine qualifies for the statutory thresholds of being safe, pure, and potent. They are …

Patent Pending: How The Current Patent Utility Requirement Hinders Biotechnological Innovation, Madison Drlik

Journal of Law and Health

The legal system is always playing catch up to adapt to new legal landscapes, doctrines, and technology; however, patent law needs help to compete with biotechnological research in the race towards innovation. Biotechnological research in the realm of human health and medicine often involves the use of therapeutic drugs. The field of healthcare biotechnology takes biological systems and processes and generates novel, creative solutions to a number of human health conditions. However, the translation process for a new drug, therapy, or process is long and expensive which requires investors to help the researchers and scientists move their creations from inception …

Stealth Consolidation: Healthcare’S Process Of Quietly Dodging Antitrust Enforcement, Nathan Rush

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The healthcare industry has become highly concentrated due to increased rates of consolidation. Mergers and acquisitions among healthcare providers have become extremely common, making dominant hospital systems the norm. When healthcare provider markets are highly concentrated, competition deteriorates, leaving patients to suffer the consequences: higher prices for lower quality care.

The federal antitrust agencies tasked with preserving competition have failed to combat the consolidation trends that are plaguing the healthcare industry. Vertical consolidation between hospitals and physician groups has especially gone unchecked. The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, a federal antitrust law, requires merging parties to give the agencies pre-merger notice. This law, …

Soft Law Governance Of Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare, Gary E. Marchant

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private Equity And Non-Profit Status In The Us Healthcare System, Sam Halabi, Sanvi Belani, George O'Hara

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dying Well: Hospice Care As A Diminished Promise, Barry R. Furrow

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reconnect Or Disconnect?: Using Technology To Address Loneliness And Social Isolation For Aging Adults And Its Regulation, Laura C. Hoffman

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Poverty & Period Products: Achieving Menstrual And Abortion Justice Through Public Benefit Programs, Allyson Crays

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Low-income people need and deserve access to quality menstrual products through public benefit programs as a public health and reproductive justice issue. Whether someone is managing their monthly period, a medical abortion, or post-pregnancy discharge, menstrual products are essential to ensure that person’s safety and bodily

autonomy. Low-income people on public benefit programs who menstruate face a variety of stigmas and barriers, and these programs are in a unique position to increase access to menstrual products to work toward menstrual and abortion justice. This Article outlines the history of public benefit programs and the stigmas accompanying them. It also details …

Health Truth To Power: Professional Collaboration To Bolster Trust Against Misinformation, William M. Sage, Keegan D. Warren

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is about health, leaving aside more general challenges to shared civic information today. The Article begins by surveying the principal challenges for health information in post-pandemic, arguably post-truth America, and then describes briefly the sources and limits of medical professional authority. Noting the double-edged sword of free speech guarantees under the U.S. Constitution, the Article continues by commenting on speaking truth to government, to industry, and to the crowd. Next, the Article considers the physicians’ role in speaking truth to power from the perspective of standard medical professional ethics and identity, comparing it to that of lawyers. Finally, …

Law’S Limits: Abortion And The Social Determinants Of Health, Maya Manian

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion (“After Dobbs”) is a prescient and timely response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and upended nearly five decades of constitutional protection for abortion. In this meticulously structured oral history, law professor David S. Cohen and sociologist Carole Joffe center the voices of abortion providers, clinic administrators, funders, and advocates from across the country. After Dobbs, not only documents the extraordinary persistence of abortion supporters in the face of legal devastation but also bears witness to …

Unwanted Medical Treatment Harms Patients: Taxonomy Of Healthcare Consent Infractions, Thaddeus Pope

Faculty Scholarship

Patients in the United States are subject to an ever-growing “avalanche” of unwanted medical treatment (UMT).  This is ethically, economically, and legally wrong. First, UMT constitutes a serious violation of patient autonomy and self-determination.  Second, it is waste (and often fraud or abuse) of scarce healthcare resources.  Third, but for rare exceptions, administering UMT contravenes settled legal rules and principles around consent and battery.

This article describe four types of unwanted medical treatment and how the law addresses (or fails to address) them.  The four types of UMT are (1) treatment over patient objections, (2) treatment with zero consent, (3) …