Category: Tobacco

ACA Final Rule on Wellness Plans

Leslie Francis Leave a comment

By Leslie Francis

On May 29th, HHS issued the final rule governing wellness incentives in group health plans. While the incentives themselves are not a surprise, the scope they are given is worthy of ongoing attention. Wellness incentives have been controversial because of their potential for intrusion into individual choice, their subtle (or not so subtle) coerciveness, their valorization of a particularly model of health, and the possibility that they will impose differential burdens and costs on people with disabilities or other disfavored groups. The final rule attempts to meet these objections in several helpful ways.

Nonetheless, the final rule still will allow programs that are differentially burdensome as a result of factors other than health status. It will also allow programs under which it is more difficult for some than for others to obtain rewards because of their states of health. In programs that give rewards for health outcomes, alternatives must be available for those who do not meet targets—but the reasonableness standard for these alternatives permits requirements that may be differentially burdensome so if they are medically appropriate and follow the recommendations of the patient’s personal physician. HHS supports wellness programs as engaging individuals in their health, as encouraging them in healthy behaviors and discouraging them in unhealthy behaviors, and as incentivizing people to make use of recommended health care services such as screenings. Read More

Conference Announcement: Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century:
Strengthening National and International Policy for Global Health and Development

February 26-27, 2013
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Chairperson, African Union Commission		 Dr. Margaret Chan
Director-General, World Health Organization

How do international laws and institutions regarding tobacco, trade, investment, agriculture and economic development intersect? What are the implications for global tobacco control efforts? How should public health concerns be taken into account in international economic policymaking? What is the proper balance between a government’s obligations to protect the health of its citizens and other international agreements to which it has subscribed? What are the broader implications for global governance and for global health?

This conference will bring together representatives from governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, business, and academia to explore these questions with the objective of:

  • Enhancing knowledge, information-sharing, network-building and learning across countries, contexts and policymaking arenas
  • Identifying strategies to strengthen the governance of tobacco at national and international levels;
  • Fostering greater policy coherence among actors working in health, trade and investment to ensure the protection of global health

The conference is being hosted by the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Global Tobacco Control and the Harvard Global Health Institute’s Forum on Global Governance for Health, with advice and support from the World Health Organization’s Tobacco-Free Initiative.

Additional support is provided by: American Legacy Foundation; American Cancer Society; the International Development Research Centre Canada; Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids; Harvard Law School; Framework Convention Alliance; O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University; Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Johns Hopkins University; International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project, University of Waterloo, Canada; Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

Additional information is available here.  Registration is required.

BU Law Conference on New Legal Challenges to Global Tobacco Control, Jan. 25, 2013

koutterson 1 Comment

Boston is a great city for health policy. On Jan. 25, BU Law hosts a conference on New Legal Challenges to Global Tobacco Control. Just a month later, Harvard hosts its own conference on the Global Governance of Tobacco (details here).

The BU Law conference  (announcement here; detailed schedule here) will focus on challenges rooted in constitutional law (First Amendment litigation in the US attacking FDA-required graphic images on tobacco packs); trade mark law (plain packaging in Australia); and global trade and investment treaties such as the Hong Kong-Australia Bilateral Investment Treaty and the WTO Agreements.  Speakers include some of the world’s leading public health experts on this topic:

  • Matthew Allen, Allen + Clarke Policy and Regulatory Specialists
  • Micah Berman, New England School of Law
  • Scott Burris, Temple University Beasley School of Law
  • Julien Chaisse, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Richard Daynard, Northeastern University School of Law
  • Samantha Graff, NPLAN
  • Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland Faculty of Law
  • Lara Khoury, McGill University Faculty of Law
  • Mark Levin, University of Hawai’i at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law
  • Jonathan Liberman, Cancer Council Victoria
  • Benn McGrady, Georgetown University Law Center
  • Ted Mermin, Public Good Law Center
  • Kevin Outterson, BU School of Law
  • Robert Stumberg, Georgetown University Law Center
  • Allyn Taylor, Georgetown University
  • Tania Voon, University of Melbourne Law School
  • George Annas, BU School of Law and BU School of Public Health
  • Leonard Glantz, BU School of Law and BU School of Public Health
  • Wendy Mariner, BU School of Law and BU School of Public Health
  • Alexandra Roberts, BU School of Law
  • Keynote Speaker: Dr. Michael Siegel, BU School of Public Health

The conference is open to everyone; see the schedule for details. The conference papers will be published in the American Journal of Law & Medicine.

Conference: The Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century, February 26-27

kparas Leave a comment

The Harvard Global Health Institute will be co-hosting a conference on The Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century: Strengthening National and International Policy for Global Health and Development at Harvard on February 26-27, 2013.  The conference program is available here, and additional information can be found here. Space is limited.  Please register by January 10.

For further information, contact Monique Bertic mbertic@hsph.harvard.edu

Tobacco Companies Must Punch Selves in Face, Court Orders

crobertson Leave a comment

By Christopher Robertson

The Washington Post covers a new order by DC district court judge Gladys Kessler, arising out of an old RICO case brought by the federal government, requiring that the tobacco companies publish advertisements to confess publicly that they previously lied about the safety of smoking and manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive.  I have pulled the district court order and posted it here, along with this appendix.  The order provides the exact language of the mandated advertisements, but no analysis.  Below the fold, I trace the convoluted path this case and a related case have taken through the compelled speech doctrine around the First Amendment, all thanks to a single judge on the Court of Appeals.

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