Nathan Cortez on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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With help from our good friend Nathan Cortez from SMU School of Law we discuss the American Health Care Act. Nathan is a thought leader in both health law and policy and administrative law and legislation–intersecting forms of expertise particularly valuable in these turbulent times.

In addition to coming to grips with some of its complex provisions, we speculated on how it will fare in the Senate, given emerging details about working groups and Democratic bridge-building by the Gang of Three (Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, and Tim “Copper Plan” Kaine). Here Professor Cortez’s expertise on Reconciliation and the Byrd Amendment proved essential. We also, let truth be told, took the opportunity to get a few things off our collective chests!

For background on AHCA: Andy Slavitt has been a diligent collector of summaries & critical commentary. In a media environment where the lies being told about AHCA’s effects on coverage are described as “flagrant,” “bald-faced,” and “gas-lighting,” expert voices are needed now more than ever. Some predict that the class warfare embodied in the bill’s distributional effects would cause a “humanitarian crisis” if it came to pass; others worry it would undo the pillars of not merely Obamacare and Medicaid, but also employer-sponsored plans. One thing appears certain: expect bankruptcy law to renew its advance onto health law syllabi. Read More

Deborah Stone on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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We are joined by Deborah Stone, Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She is famous for her classic, Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making, a magisterial account of goals, problems, and solutions in a wide array of policy conflicts.

Policy Paradox has had four editions over 25 years and has been translated into five languages. As Stone argues in the book, “behind every policy issue lurks a contest over conflicting, though equally plausible, conceptions of the same abstract goal or value.” Recognizing the deep pluralism of values and aims, Stone wisely counsels that “the job of the policy designer…is to understand the rules of the game well enough to know the standard moves and countermoves, and to think about them strategically.”

With this theoretical structure firmly in mind, we discuss the ACA and healthcare in the world of Trump. We also asked Deborah about her article “Caring Communities: What Would it Take?,” a patient-centered, care-focused counter-narrative to technocratic quantification. Grounding present conflicts in a longer-term view of the role of policymakers in a democracy, Stone offers perspective on the future of health equity in a polity where even the basic concept of risk pooling now appears contestable.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on Twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw.

Most-Cited Health Law Scholars (with an update on multiple authors)

By Mark A. Hall and I. Glenn Cohen

Based on the law faculty citation analysis done by Greg Sisk, Brian Leiter has compiled “most-cited” rankings of tenured law faculty in a number of different subject areas, but not health law.  Naturally, we would be curious to know how we and colleagues might show up in such a ranking, but more than this, we were curious how the field of Health Law as a whole would look, compared to other fields, and how well different component of health law might be reflected.  Health law (as many people conceive it) is a broad field that includes bioethics, biotechnology, medical malpractice, health care finance and regulation, health policy, and public health.

Using Leiter’s methods and the Sisk data (supplemented as noted below), we compiled a citation-count ranking of health law scholars over the five-year period 2010-2014 (which is the latest currently available from Sisk).  We classify faculty as health law scholars if publications in this field account for the bulk (roughly 2/3) of their more recent citations.  A research librarian at Wake Forest University supplemented the Sisk data by doing citation counts (using his same methods) for an additional two dozen prominent health law scholars who are not on the Sisk list because they are at lower-ranked schools (below the top 70) or are based at schools of medicine or public health.  To ensure maximum comparability between these rankings and those already existing for other legal fields we conformed to Leiter’s presentation, which entailed, among other things, rounding citations to the nearest ten and estimating the age of those ranked.  Read More

Heather Howard on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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Health policy researcher Heather H. Howard returns to the pod and, not surprisingly, Medicaid was the focus of our talk. Howard is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, where she teaches courses on implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the social determinants of health, and state and local health policy. She works with states implementing health reforms and served as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Health and Senior Services from 2008-2010. She tweets at @HeatherHHoward.

We discussed various Medicaid issues; the extent non-expansion was driven by policy or politics, work requirements under Section 1115 waivers, state administrative costs associated with draconian Medicaid expansion criteria (particularly when compared to the macroeconomic effects of a robust healthcare system), cost-sharing and the “private option” in existing state plans, and the likelihood of Section 1332 waivers moving states to universal care or, at least, meaningful innovation.

Our lightning round addressed various issues, including an Altarum study on the macroeconomic effects of the ACA, and state AG’s actions regarding mHealth apps and privacy.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on Twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw.

Judy Solomon on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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This week we discussed the future of the ACA with Judy Solomon of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Judy is Vice President for Health Policy at CBPP, where she focuses on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. She is also an expert on issues related to the implementation of the ACA, particularly policies to make coverage available and affordable for low-income people.

As new alternatives to the ACA emerge, we discussed the wide range of policies that may be in the offing for state Medicaid waivers. CBPP has a fascinating and up-to-date series of posts on the transition from Obamacare to Trumpcare. Follow Judy on Twitter at @JudyCBPP, which includes links to her insightful blog posts and a number of other critical developments in health policy.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw

Rebecca Dresser on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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This week features Professor Rebecca Dresser of Washington University. She is the author of Silent Partners: Human Subjects and Research Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2016) and When Science Offers Salvation: Patient Advocacy and Research Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2001), along with many other insightful articles on bioethics and law. Our discussion focused on Silent Partners, including Rebecca’s work’s relevance to current debates on research ethics and informed consent.

Rebecca is a past member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Board. She is a prolific speaker and panelist at national and international symposia, conferences, and workshops on such topics as bioethics and cancer; advance treatment directives; stem cell research; biomedical research policy; and human cloning.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw

Tim Jost on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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This week we are honored to have a conversation with Professor Tim Jost from Washington & Lee School of Law. Jost, one of our most prolific scholars and astute commentators, not to mention the rock around which the Health Affairs blog is built, looks back at the successes and failures of the ACA, speculates on some of the reasons for its rocky road, and looks ahead to repeal and replacement.

Jost’s posts at Health Affairs are more urgent than ever as the uncertainty around ACA repeal/replace/delay intensifies. While his work on consumer-directed health care is particularly relevant to today’s policy environment, he has also proposed reforms to strengthen the ACA.

For some notes on items we discussed: Frank mentioned an analysis of Tom Price’s plan to replace the ACA, focusing on the plan to “block grant $1 billion dollars a year for four years (or $2.2 million per Congressional District per year) to help states fund high risk pools.” Jost mentioned a Commonwealth Fund report suggesting that amount is not even within two orders of magnitude of the true cost of such pools (at least $100 billion). But at least some people will truly benefit from ACA repeal: the 400 highest-income households each “would get an average tax cut of about $7 million a year,” according to CBPP.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw

Zack Buck on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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This week’s podcast features conversation with University of Tennessee Professor Zack Buck. His recent research suggests an interesting fiduciary approach to dealing with the problem of over-treatment and also ponders the best way to deal with the “financial toxicity” that results from related phenomena.

Zack’s work is archived at SSRN. He has creatively approached the problem of overtreatment in a series of articles, focusing on ways that health care finance and regulation can be reformed in order to better calibrate incentives for optimal care. His work includes “Furthering the Fiduciary Metaphor” and “Caring Too Much: Misapplying the False Claims Act to Target Overtreatment.”

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw

Jordan Paradise on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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Loyola Chicago law professor Jordan Paradise joins us to discuss some of her recent work in life sciences law. Jordan’s recent interests span nanotechnology, synthetic biology, precision medicine, gene editing, and electronic cigarettes.  Her publications have appeared in both peer-reviewed and legal publications.

We start with a review of some of the regulatory issues involving e-cigarettes, and discuss the 2016 FDA regulations. We then move into a discussion of FDA regulation of biologics and biosimilars and Jordan explains naming and substitution issues.

Jordan’s recent publications include research on how the FDA could regulate e-cigarettes, strategic misuse of risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS), and cutting edge developments in the law of biosimilars.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at iTunes, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw

Russell Korobkin on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

By Nicolas Terry and Frank Pasquale

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twihl 5x5For our Diamond Podcast, our guest is Russell Korobkin, Vice Dean and Richard C. Maxwell Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches ContractsNegotiation and Health Care Law. Russell has published more than 50 law journal articles in the fields of behavioral law and economics, negotiation and alternative dispute resolution, contract law, the health care law and stem cell research, and has also published several books.

In the lightning round, Nic focused on the AARP’s challenge to wellness programs, and further empirical research on the Oregon experiment. Frank discussed news coverage of past guest Ameet Sarpatwari’s work, and a study on the use of scribes to promote better data gathering and analysis (and relieve physician burnout). Read More