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Course Descriptions
Administrative Law (2) #1030
This course explores the role of administrative law in health care and the effects of federalism and constitutional issues in that context. Students will review the sources of law for health care providers (institutions, organizations and individuals). In doing so, they will chart the overlapping and sometimes conflicting roles of federal and state legal regulation and study the implications and effects of the various types of laws that govern the provision of health care: administrative agency regulations, constitutional provisions, statutes, and court decisions. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Business Organizations in Health Care (2) #2050
The sheer variety of health care organizations that exist today is overwhelming. In this course, students will examine the legal considerations underlying the structure, function, and transactions among various forms of health care organizations. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Health Care as an Employee Benefit (2) #2040
This course focuses on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and also covers various other federal laws, including tax and employment discrimination laws, as they relate to employment-based health benefit plans. The course provides information on the rights – and limits on rights – of patients to obtain payment for health care from health benefit plans regulated by federal law and the scope of the liability of such plans to pay for care provided to or recommended for plan participants. The course also offers an understanding of the structure of employment-based health care financing as part of the context within which to consider alternative approaches to reform of the U.S. health care delivery system. Students will study (1) various forms of health benefit plans, (2) coverage requirements imposed on health plans, (3) procedural requirements imposed on plan administrators, (4) civil enforcement of rights of plan participants, and (5) ERISA preemption of state law |
Individual Research Project Seminar (1.5) #2080 Part 1
In this course, students will have the opportunity to merge their studies with their duties in the health care setting. Each student will work with faculty to apply the theory and law gained in one or more courses to a problem he or she perceives either in the workplace or in the industry in general. Successful completion requires timely completion of the IRP topic outline (of at least 5 pages) plus timely submission to each discussion board assignment and participation in scheduled live classroom discussions. Grade for part 1 is pass/fail. If a student should receive a grade of fail they must re-take part 1 before moving onto part 2. Prerequisite: All course work must be successfully completed. For course syllabus and further description click here. |
Individual Research Project Seminar (1.5) #2080 Part 2
In this course, students will have the opportunity to merge their studies with their duties in the health care setting. Each student will work with faculty to apply the theory and law gained in one or more courses to a problem he or she perceives either in the workplace or in the industry in general. Successful completion requires compliance with rigorous academic research standards, submission of the IRP rough draft, production of the final IRP written product, and an oral presentation of the project to persons in the industry and faculty. Prerequisite: All course work must be successfully completed and IRP part 1 must be completed with a passing grade. For course syllabus and further description click here. |
Institute for the Study of Health Law, Part I (1) #1010
At this on-campus Institute, conducted during orientation, students will be exposed to the American legal system's structure and history, the basics of the court system, and legal research and reasoning techniques. They will also have the opportunity to speak with and hear from leading practitioners in various areas of health law. Students will receive instruction in the legal structure of U.S. health care. They will preview the federalist method of regulating health care in the US, thus laying the foundation for the course on Administrative Law. Students also will examine the relatively recent shift in America from fee-for-service medicine to managed care and the various legal regulatory changes it has spawned.
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Institute for the Study of Health Law, Part II (1) #2000
At this on-campus Institute, students will undergo further instruction in legal research, attend courses and presentations on specialized topics building on their year of coursework, and confer with faculty advisors regarding their Individual Research Projects. They also must present their Individual Research Project ideas to a group of their peers, incoming students, various faculty members, and practitioners in the field. Such presentations will offer opportunities for further development of their ideas and refinement of their project plans. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Institute for the Study of Health Law, Part III (1) #2090
At the final on-campus Institute, students orally present the results of their Individual Research Projects, attend additional courses and presentations, and participate in a graduation ceremony. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Law of Accreditation & Licensing (2) #1090
This course provides a detailed examination of the legal aspects of two credentialing concepts, namely accreditation and licensure, in both the individual health care practitioner setting and the institutional setting. Students will examine the primary goal of these concepts (i.e., protecting the public), how accreditation differs from licensure, and how they interrelate. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Law of Medicare & Medicaid (3) #1050
This course focuses on the legal structure of two federal governmental programs enacted in 1965 when Congress expanded the Social Security Act. To enhance their understanding of these complex programs, students will examine the legal fundamentals of these programs (program purposes; populations served; eligibility requirements; program limitations; the scope of covered benefits; and reimbursable services) through the relevant federal statutes and case law interpretation. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Law of Patients' Rights and Advocacy (2) #1080
Over the last century, the law governing medicine has seen a shift from paternalism to respect for patients as the decisionmakers. Beginning with the development of the bedrock legal principles of informed consent, this course will examine the legal aspects of patients' rights movements and will trace the status of patients' legal abilities to control their treatment. Part of the course will be devoted to the existence of, substance of, and reasons for patients' rights statutes specific to hospital and nursing home settings. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Law of Risk Management (2) #2030
This course focuses on the legal importance of risk management programs for health care institutions. In doing so, it examines the keys to organizing and implementing successful risk management programs. It also focuses on considerations for developing effective risk management programs, evaluating them, and addressing specific risk areas, including those arising in managed care and integrated health care delivery systems. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Legal Issues in Health Care Human Resources (2) #2070
This course examines legal issues relevant to the management of employees within health care organizations. The specific areas examined include: (1) the legal impact of changes in health care on the management of health care organizations, including the need to control health care usage and costs, corporate health care fragility, mergers, and acquisitions; and (2) in the context of that background, the basics of health care employment law, including employment discrimination issues, unionization, permissible bargaining units, concerns about strikes, and managed care considerations. Prerequisite: 1020, 1070 |
Legal Negotiation (2) #2020
This course seeks to familiarize students with the various ways in which their legal counsel will attempt to resolve disputes on their behalf. Lawyers, of course, may litigate to resolve disputes, but far more commonly-used weapons in the lawyer's arsenal are negotiation, arbitration and mediation. Students in this course will have the opportunity to review, discuss, and experiment with some of the skills their lawyers will be using on their behalf. They will come to appreciate the legal issues that can affect such non-litigation techniques. Attention will also be paid to the legal mechanisms by which parties to disputes are more and more often being forced into mediation or arbitration. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Legal Perspectives on Health Care Ethics (2) #1040
This course examines how the law has affected health care ethics by exploring the principles of ethics for health care providers; the ways in which these ethical principles are reflected in the law; and the legal, ethical, and policy aspects of issues affecting health care providers. Students will analyze situations arising in the health care context and will consider issues relating to both individual and institutional health care providers' ethics. |
Legal Regulation of the Workplace (2) #1070
The law regulates the workplace with regard to both intangible and physical conditions. For example, laws prohibiting discrimination against and among employees regulate working conditions in one sense. The government also regulates physical occupational health and safety through the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 29 U.S.C. 651 (OSHA). This course will examine both the regulations governing prevention of and notice to employees about worker safety and the law of employment discrimination in the health care setting. Prerequisite: 1020 |
Legal Research, Methods & Reasoning (3) #1020
The law is never static. Coupled with its ever-increasing role in the governance of health care institutions and health care practitioners, this truism means that health care practitioners and administrators may need to obtain, review and apply newly issued laws or legal decisions in their day-to-day activities. This course will enable students to find the law, to read and understand legal statutes and regulations, and to understand the analytic process lawmakers and lawyers use. |
Regulatory Compliance in the Health Care Industry (2) #2010
This course will follow up on the course on Medicare and Medicaid, exploring in more depth the steps health care institutions and individual health care practitioners can take to protect themselves against severe legal penalty in the areas of potential Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse and anti-kickback liability. Prerequisite: 1020, 1050 |
Tort & Contract Law (3) #1060
This course provides a detailed introduction to the legal principles and major concepts of tort law and contract law, focusing on legal claims and disputes in the health care context. Prerequisite: 1020 |
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