Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The Federalism Challenges Of Protecting Medical Privacy In Workers' Compensation, Ani B. Satz

Indiana Law Journal

Under current law, injured workers face a Hobson’s choice: They may file for workers’ compensation or maintain their medical privacy. The reason for this is that § 164.512(l) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s Privacy Rule (HPR) is widely misinterpreted by courts and legislatures as a wholesale waiver of privacy protections for injured workers. Section 164.512(l) excludes workers’ compensation from federal privacy protections that may frustrate the efficient administration of workers’ compensation claims. As the history and intent behind the HPR indicate, § 164.512(l) is premised on the assumption that states will protect workers’ privacy by creating and …

Contracting For Healthcare: Price Terms In Hospital Admission Agreements, George A. Nation Iii

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article discusses the application of contract law principles to the relationship between hospitals and patients to determine how much patients owe for the health care they receive. For patients who are covered by in-network health insurance the exact nature of the contract created with the hospital usually is not relevant to the patient’s financial obligation because the patient’s contract with the hospital is superseded by the contract between the patient’s health insurer and the hospital. Nevertheless, even in-network patients are financially impacted, via increased insurance premiums, by the contract analysis discussed here, and for the increasing number of patients …

Population Law And Policy: From Control And Contraception To Equity And Equality, Victoria Mather

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

When "Things" Go Wrong: Redefining Liability For The Internet Of Medical Things, Bethany A. Corbin

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Internet Of Bodies, Andrea M. Matwyshyn

William & Mary Law Review

This Article introduces the ongoing progression of the Internet of Things (IoT) into the Internet of Bodies (IoB)—a network of human bodies whose integrity and functionality rely at least in part on the Internet and related technologies, such as artificial intelligence. IoB devices will evidence the same categories of legacy security flaws that have plagued IoT devices. However, unlike most IoT, IoB technologies will directly, physically harm human bodies—a set of harms courts, legislators, and regulators will deem worthy of legal redress. As such, IoB will herald the arrival of (some forms of) corporate software liability and a new legal …

J Mich Dent Assoc October 2019

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 across the state. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists! This month's issue features an articles on the Dental Assistant shortage and MDA's efforts to address it, antibiotic stewardship in dentistry, and a LEAD (Leadership Exploration and Development) showcase.

Dying While Trans: A Critical Analysis Of Respect After Death Laws, Kara Nowakowski

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note critiques Respect After Death (RAD) laws, which aim to ensure that transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals' gender identities are respected on death certificates and in funeral proceedings. While these laws represent progress, they fail to address systemic barriers faced by TGNC individuals, such as limited access to legal and medical transition resources, leaving many without the necessary documentation to secure their rights even in death. The note proposes a more comprehensive legislative solution for New York State to better protect TGNC individuals' bodily autonomy after death.

Potential Liability For Physicians Using Artificial Intelligence, W. Nicholson Price Ii, Sara Gerke, I Glenn Cohen

Articles

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly making inroads into medical practice, especially in forms that rely on machine learning, with a mix of hope and hype. Multiple AI-based products have now been approved or cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and health systems and hospitals are increasingly deploying AI-based systems. For example, medical AI can support clinical decisions, such as recommending drugs or dosages or interpreting radiological images.2 One key difference from most traditional clinical decision support software is that some medical AI may communicate results or recommendations to the care team without being able to communicate the …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax, Class, Women, And Elder Care, Nancy E. Shurtz

Seattle University Law Review

As the fastest-growing urban area in the United States—and due to its emerging national influence in commercial real estate development and leasing through transformational transactions such as Amazon’s recently completed national HQ2 search—the City of Seattle and related Washington State laws addressing the use of dual agency in commercial transactions present a unique backdrop for examining the findings and recommendations from a 2014 commercial real estate conflicts of interest research study and attendant report, described below, more than four years after its publication. In November 2014, a published research study report made a number of key observations about the existence …

No Treatment, No Hope, No Future: Decriminalization Of Heroin And Creation Of A Medical Dependent Standard, Alexander Mangano

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This Note will analyze the current ways heroin users are treated, stigmatized, and left with very little options upon recovery to support themselves and live a normal, productive life. Specifically, this Note will focus on how New York handles heroin users and their experiences with the criminal justice system. This Note proposes the decriminalization, not legalization, of only heroin use. To help addicts with recovery, diversionary courts and programs should be removed from the criminal justice system and instead act as a civil court. Additionally, the creation of a “medical dependent” classification will allow families to effectively force the …

Convening Of Academic Medical-Legal Partnership: Law School Clinical Faculty, Health Justice Alliance

HJA Scholarship

On September 18, 2019, the Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance (HJA), with generous support from the Winer Family Foundation, brought together a group of clinical law faculty from across the country, all of whom use the medical-legal partnership (MLP) model to teach law students to work interprofessionally to address the health harming legal needs of vulnerable patients. This Report provides background on medical-legal partnerships and the law school clinic model, describes the substance discussed during each session of the convening, and includes a summary of key findings and ideas for innovation as well as areas for future exploration.

Humanizing Work Requirements For Safety Net Programs, Mary Leto Pareja

Pace Law Review

This Article explores the political and policy appeal of work requirements for public benefit programs and concludes that inclusion of such requirements can be a reasonable design choice, but not in their current form. This Article’s proposals attempt to humanize these highly controversial work requirements while acknowledging the equity concerns they are designed to address. Drawing on expansive definitions of “work” found in guidance published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (“CMS”) and in various state waiver applications, this Article proposes that work requirements be approved for Medicaid (as well as other benefit programs) only if they encompass various …

Forbidden Flower: How Allowing Medical Cannabis Flower In West Virginia Helps Heal Patients And The State Economy, Jordan Maddy

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Health Policy To Stigma And Back Again: The Feedback Loop Perpetuating The Opioids Crisis, Nicolas Terry

Utah Law Review

Between 1999 and 2017, almost 400,000 people died from opioid overdoses, and since 2001, the opioid crisis has cost the U.S. more than 1 trillion dollars. In late 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary opined that the country was “beginning to turn the tide” in responding to the crisis. Secretary Azar’s positive statements were based on preliminary CDC data that showed a national decline of 2.7 percent in drug overdose deaths from October 2017 to May 2018. However, data still show over half the states posting an increase in overdose deaths with a concentration of higher …

Medical Ai And Contextual Bias, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Articles

Artificial intelligence will transform medicine. One particularly attractive possibility is the democratization of medical expertise. If black-box medical algorithms can be trained to match the performance of high-level human experts — to identify malignancies as well as trained radiologists, to diagnose diabetic retinopathy as well as board-certified ophthalmologists, or to recommend tumor-specific courses of treatment as well as top-ranked oncologists — then those algorithms could be deployed in medical settings where human experts are not available, and patients could benefit. But there is a problem with this vision. Privacy law, malpractice, insurance reimbursement, and FDA approval standards all encourage developers …

Seeking Insurance Parity During The Opioid Epidemic, Valarie K. Blake

Utah Law Review

Private insurance covers almost 40 percent of people with opioid addiction. Yet, amid an epidemic with profound consequences for individual and public health, private insurers continue to fuel addiction by favoring addictive but affordable pain therapies over nonaddictive ones and by placing unreasonable, sometimes unlawful, hurdles and delays in the ways of addiction treatment. Action must be taken now to address these harms. Laws like the ACA and the MHPAEA need greater enforcement, while gaps in these laws can and should be addressed through broader federal and state initiatives. Private insurers must be regulated, and swiftly, to ensure that people …

America’S Favorite Antidote: Drug-Induced Homicide In The Age Of The Overdose Crisis, Leo Beletsky

Utah Law Review

Nearing the end of its second decade, the overdose crisis in the United States continues to claim tens of thousands of lives. Despite the rhetorical emphasis on a “public health” approach, criminal law and its enforcement continue to play a central role among policy responses to this crisis. A legacy of the 1980s War on Drugs, statutory provisions that implicate drug distributors in overdose fatalities are on the books in many U.S. jurisdictions and federally. This Article articulates an interdisciplinary critique of these “drug-induced homicide” laws at a time of their increased popularity, expanding scope, and aggressive prosecution. That these …

Illegal Substance Abuse And Protection From Discrimination In Housing And Employment: Reversing The Exclusion Of Illegal Substance Abuse As A Disability, Leslie P. Francis

Utah Law Review

When landlords or employers know that someone is using opioids, either legally or illegally, the consequences can be significant. Rental housing or employment are both critical to well-being, yet may be at particularly high risk. As this Article argues below, legal protections in these areas are inadequate. To summarize the argument briefly, a crucial legal problem for people suffering from substance abuse disorders is that current illegal use of controlled substances is excluded from the definition of disability in federal anti-discrimination statutes. A history of substance abuse is a disability protected from discrimination, but recent relapses vitiate this protection. Relatedly, …

A Framework For Tribal Public Health Law, Aila Hoss

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.