Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Effects Of The Affordable Care Act On Health Behaviors After Three Years, Charles J. Courtemanche, James Marton, Benjamin Ukert, Aaron Yelowitz, Daniela Zapata

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

This paper examines the impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – which substantially increased insurance coverage through regulations, mandates, subsidies, and Medicaid expansions – on behaviors related to future health risks after three years. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and an identification strategy that leverages variation in pre-ACA uninsured rates and state Medicaid expansion decisions, we show that the ACA increased preventive care utilization along several dimensions, but also increased risky drinking. These results are driven by the private portions of the law, as opposed to the Medicaid expansion. We also conduct subsample analyses by …

Pegalis & Erickson Health Law Colloquium, New York Law School

Health Law Society Publications

Examining the Intersection of Law and Bioethics in 2013.

The American legal system has played a dramatic role in shaping the field of bioethics. The dynamic intersection of law and bioethics is a fruitful area of inquiry for purposes of knowledge generation, policy making and best practices. Reflecting a diversity of perspectives, this CLE will examine the crucial connection between law and matters bioethical in 2018. The program will include a focus on clinical decision making, palliative and end-of-life care, dispute resolution, medical and social science research, and informed consent and decision making.

Legal Strategies For Economic Empowerment Of Persons In Recovery, Lauren Rogal

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Burden Of A Good Idea: Examining The Impact Of Unfunded Federal Regulatory Mandates On Medicare Participating Hospitals, Rachel J. Suddarth

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Contraception Matters: Rights, Class, And Context, Naomi Cahn

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Working For Recovery: How The Americans With Disabilities Act And State Human Rights Laws Can Facilitiate Successful Rehabilitation For Alcoholics And Drug Addicts, Samuel Brown Petsonk, Anne Marie Lofaso

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Parallel Worlds: Comparing Rural Development To Development In Global Communities, Jena Martin, Karon Powell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Exempting Negligent Doctors May Reduce Suicide: An Empirical Analysis, John Shahar Dillbary, Griffin Edwards, Fredrick E. Vars

Indiana Law Journal

This Article is the first to empirically analyze the impact of tort liability on suicide. Counter-intuitively, our analysis shows that suicide rates increase when potential tort liability is expanded to include psychiatrists—the very defendants who would seem best able to prevent suicide. Using a fifty-state panel regression for 1981 to 2013, we find that states which allowed psychiatrists (but not other doctors) to be liable for malpractice resulting in suicide experienced a 9.3% increase in suicides. On the other hand, and more intuitively, holding non-psychiatrist doctors liable de-creases suicide by 10.7%. These countervailing effects can be explained by psychiatrists facing …

Evaluation Of The Associations Between Unplanned Readmissions And The Lace Index And Other Variables, Cathy Stankiewicz, Dnp, Msn, Rn

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Unplanned readmissions, within 30 days following an inpatient hospital admission, are common and costly. Research has identified factors that predict readmissions, and predictive algorithms, such as the LACE index, have been studied and widely adopted by hospitals despite demonstrated variability in predictive ability.

Objectives: To examine the associations between unplanned readmissions and the LACE index, and other variables that reflect patient- and encounter-level factors not currently incorporated in the LACE index.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted utilizing data from electronic health records of inpatients discharged from a large quaternary hospital located in the southeastern United States between January …

Trying And Dying: Are Some Wishes At The End Of Life Better Than Others?, Oliver J. Kim

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the United States, efforts to create a "rightto try," or to provide access for the terminally ill to try experimental drugs, have seen overwhelming success in passing state legislatures. This success provided the foundation for advocates' long-term goal of a federal right to try. Yet proposals ranging from very modest advance-care-planning consultations to the "rightto die,"or medical aid in dying, face steep political challenges despite seeming public support. This paper discusses the legal underpinnings of both "rights" and the current political and policy debate over each. More often than not, these "rights" are grantedthrough legislation rather than judicial decisions, …

A Comparative Analysis Of Voluntariness Safeguards And Review Procedure Under Oregon And The Netherlands' Physician Assisted Dying Laws, Michaela Estelle Okninski

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article provides a comparative statutory analysis of the requirements for a voluntary decision in a request for physician assisted dying under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and the Netherlands' Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act. This comparative analysis aims to provide insight into how voluntariness is determined in practice and how the review procedure is conducted, with a view to identifying strengths and limitations within a legislative framework. First, the legislative safeguards aimed at protecting a voluntary decision are discussed. This is followed by an examination of the review procedure. This article concludes by …

Improving Outcomes In Child Poverty And Wellness In Appalachia In The "New Normal" Era: Infusing Empathy Into Law, Jill C. Engle

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quarantine And The Federal Role In Epidemics, Michael R. Ulrich, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Every recent presidential administration has faced an infectious disease threat, and this trend is certain to continue. The states have primary responsibility for protecting the public’s health under their police powers, but modern travel makes diseases almost impossible to contain intrastate. How should the federal government respond in the future? The Ebola scare in the U.S. repeated a typical response—demands for quarantine. In January 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued final regulations on its authority to issue Federal Quarantine Orders. These regulations rely heavily on confining persons who may …

Attitudes Toward Contraception Among Fourth Wave College-Aged Women, Caroline L. Lewis

Student Publications

This research examines how college-aged women today view contraception in comparison to the ways it has been viewed by previous generations of women, as well as what they view the future of contraception in the United States to look like. This has been done through a lens of political action and advocacy, which has defined the fight for access to contraception and reproductive justice throughout history. In light of the recent threats on contraception and the corresponding responsive social movements, such as the Women’s March, women in the United States are shifting their views on the matter, but what actions …

Foreseeably Unclear: The Meaning Of The "Reasonably Foreseeable" Criterion For Access To Medical Assistance In Dying In Canada, Jocelyn Downie, Kate Scallion

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canada's medical assistance in dying legislation contains the eligibility criterion "naturaldeath has become reasonably foreseeable." The phrase "reasonably foreseeable" is unfamiliar and unclear. As a result of ongoing confusion about its meaning, there is reason to be concerned that under- or over-inclusive interpretations of the phrase are adversely affecting access to MAID. With critical interests at stake (eg access to MAiD and potential criminal liability), it is essential that the meaning of the phrase be clarified. Furthermore, the meaning of "reasonably foreseeable" will be at issue in the Charter challenges to the federal MAiD legislation currently before the courts in …

Questioning Polst: Practical And Religious Issues, Lloyd Steffen

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is a one-page transferrable medical chart insert designed to facilitate physician-patient communication about a patient's wishes at the end of life. The document as a chart addition is in widespread use today, but various criticisms have been leveled at POLST, the most serious being that POLST creates a slippery slope to illicit active euthanasia. This article examines the criticisms and finds that they fit two categories, the first being practical implementation problems. These problems are correctable given more and better training of medical care staff. The second and more serious ethical charge …

How Subterranean Regulation Hinders Innovation In Assisted Reproductive Technology, Myrisha S. Lewis

Cardozo Law Review

Most scholars believe assisted reproductive technology is subject only to minimal regulation, especially by the federal government. This belief I contend, is wrong. In this Article, I examine agency documents, statements by officials, and letters that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent to physicians and researchers over the past fifteen years to reveal an overlooked regulatory program. The FDA has been targeting new forms of assisted reproductive technology that involve small genetic modifications (advanced assisted reproductive technologies or AARTs) through regulatory actions that receive little public, media, or scholarly attention. I term this method of regulation "subterranean …

Physicians' Attitudes, Concerns, And Procedural Understanding Of Medical Aid-In-Dying In Vermont, Teresa Ditommaso, Ari P. Kirshenbaum, Brendan Parent

Dalhousie Law Journal

The general purpose of the current study was to collect data on physicians' attitudes towards Act 39, the medical aid-in-dying act that was legislatively approved in 2013. Given the recent nature of the implementation of Act 39, this is the first such study to be conducted in the State of Vermont. The survey was quantitative in nature and addressed three distinct aspects of legalized prescribing of life-ending medication, these being physicians': (I) attitudes regarding ethics and legality of Act 39, (11)understandings of the policies and procedural requirements under the law, including their belief in legal immunity from penalty, and (I1) …

Legalizing Assisted Dying: Cross Purposes And Unintended Consequences, Emily Jackson

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the UK, assisted dying continues to be unlawful, and pro-legalization campaigners have made use of human rights based applications for judicial review and Private Members Bills in order to try to change the law. Interestingly, however, the proposed statute would not offer an assisted death to many of the litigants who have sought to force Parliament's hand. This article considers whether this a one-off peculiarity, or whether there might be other mismatches between what the law can achieve and what matters most to people who are seeking an assisted death for themselves. It also explores what seems to be …

Euthanasia By Organ Donation, Michael Shapiro

Dalhousie Law Journal

Euthanasia, the administration of therapy designed to hasten death, particularly in patients with intolerable suffering, has been gaining in acceptance in countries around the world, most recently in Canada. Organ donation from deceased organ donors has always been performed under the strictures of the dead donor rule, the requirement that donors be declared dead prior to any organ recovery. Recent scientific and ethical investigations, however, have questioned whether all donors, whether pronounced based on neurologic (brain death) or circulatory criteria are, in fact, dead. One potential approach to this quandary would be to abandon the fiction imposed by the dead …