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In this issue...
Welcome
Current Developments
Upcoming Events
News
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Welcome
Greetings to all.
The Health Law Society
(HLS) has had a productive and interesting semester thus far,
hosting several well-attended events. On September 9th, in
collaboration with the Indianapolis Bar Association's Health Law
Section, the HLS convened a panel of diverse speakers to address
strategies for getting hired via the law school's On-Campus Interview
process. On September 16th, the HLS co-hosted the Center for Law
& Health's Annual Open House and Student Reception
. The formal portion of the evening provided students
with an opportunity to learn about the Center's activities, the health
law concentration, the joint-degree programs offered through the Center
and the three affiliated student organizations. The reception
that followed allowed students the opportunity to network with academic
leadership, practicing health law attorneys and other students sharing
similar interests in the healthcare industry. The most recent
activity organized by the HLS was the October 29th event, Framing the Issues on the Left & Right: a Debate on Health Reform
. In this debate, Aaron Carroll, MD, MS and Associate
Professor of Medicine at Indiana University argued for a single-payer
healthcare system while Dr. David Hyman, MD, JD and Professor of Law
and Medicine at the University of Illinois advocated for a purely
market-driven system. This event was also hosted by the Center
for Law & Health and the Consortium for Health Policy, Law &
Bioethics.
The HLS has participated in two additional events this fall, one
supporting a worthy cause and the other a purely social event for
society members. The HLS, together with the Feminist Law Society
and the LAMBDA Law Society, helped to support the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Abuse's Annual Mock Trial.
The trial, was held on November 14th in the Wynne Courtroom beginning
at 8:30 a.m., and focused on aspects of prosecution specific to
cases of sexual assault involving same-sex intimate partners.
Lastly, the HLS wrapped up the semester with good conversation and food
at the 2008 Smokin' Chili Cook-Off
held at Professor Eleanor Kinney's home on Friday, November 21st from 7:00-10:00 p.m.
The HLS is very excited to announce that it has been working with
the Center for Law & Health's Steering Committee to institute a new
mentor program pairing interested HLS members with practicing health
law attorneys in the Indianapolis area. Initial pairings have
been made and the program will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Please contact Amy Lewis Gilbert at amylewis@iupui.edu if you are interested in participating as either a student or attorney mentor.
Details about upcoming events can be found on the HLS webpage: http://indylaw.indiana.edu/centers/clh/student/HLS/ |
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Current Developments
 The Business in Human Tissue
By
Robert A . Katz, Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis
A deceased person's non-organ tissues can be processed into therapeutic implants or "allografts" that
enhance the quality of recipients' lives. Cadaveric bones can
be used for spinal fusions, veins for bypass surgery, and skin for
grafts. Although transplantable tissues are more widely available
than organs, certain types of tissues are in short supply. The
demand for transplant tissues is likely to grow as new uses are found,
new allograft forms are developed, and the population ages. Read more...
 The End of Community Benefit?
Tax-Exempt Status Under President-Elect Obama's Health Care Proposal
By Tom Donohoe, '08, Associate, Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman P.C.
Over the past couple of years, tax-exempt hospitals have been under
growing scrutiny regarding their tax-exempt status. United States
senators have convened workgroups and hearings to study whether the
community benefits provided by tax-exempt healthcare entities warrants
the substantial tax exemption they receive. The Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) has recently revised Form 990 and its accompanying
schedules, including Schedule H, requiring more information from
tax-exempt hospitals regarding their activities and their community
benefit. While these congressional and administrative bodies have
increased their level of scrutiny of tax-exempt hospitals, state courts
have begun to revoke tax-exempt hospitals' property exemptions based on
finding that the community benefits rendered are inadequate.
While this flurry of activity at both the state and federal levels has
the tax-exempt community wondering what lawmakers, regulators, and
courts will do next, few have considered the effect president-elect
Obama's healthcare proposals would have on the community benefit
standard. Read more...
Getting Past the Emergency Room: Dilemmas U.S. Hospitals Face in Treating Uninsured, Illegal Immigrants
By Alexandria Assareh, 3L
Uninsured
immigrants who are gravely injured or seriously ill have few choices in
the type of long-term medical care they receive. In fact, the way
the American health care system handles cases involving uninsured
immigrants is so erratic that whether such patients receive sustained
care in this country or are privately deported by a hospital depends on
what emergency room they initially visit. Read more...
The First Major Civil Rights Act of the Century: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008
By Miriam E. Huck, 2L
In 1995, the first federal legislation to prevent the misuse of
genetic information was introduced. Genetic information is
obtained from genetic tests that not only allow medical professionals
to confirm a suspected genetic disease, but also screen for genes that
pre-dispose patients to certain diseases. At the time of the 1995
legislation, roughly 300 genetic tests were available, and they mostly
screened for rare diseases. Thus, many people felt that such
legislation was premature; as a result, this and later-proposed
legislation did not pass.
Fast forward 13 years-the human genome has been sequenced and there
are now over 1,500 genetic tests available, many of them for common
diseases....Although no case has ever gone to trial over health
insurance or employer-related genetic discrimination, evidence
indicates that patients often refuse genetic tests and do not
participate in clinical research trials for fear that insurance
companies and employers might gain access to these records. Read more...
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Upcoming Events
December 8 -9, 2008
The Medical Technology Leadership Forum
FDA in the 21st Century: Issues and Their Impact on Medical Techonolgy
For more information please see
http://www.mtlf.org/docs/Agenda111408.pdf
December 11, 2008
The Hall Center for Law and Health
Invites YOU (colleagues, students, staff, alumni and friends) to Light up the Holiday Season with a Party
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Hall Center, Inlow Hall, Room 136
February 25, 2009
McDonald-Merrill-Ketcham Lecture/Indiana Health Law Review Symposium
Beyond Band Aids: How to Cure America's Ailing Health Care System
Speaker: Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Time: TBA
Location: Inlow Hall
CLE and CME credit (pending approval)
Contact: Contact Carsandra Knight for more information: (317) 274-1912 |
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News
 New Adjunct Professor: Mr. Ralph Hall
The Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis is pleased to
announce that Mr. Ralph Hall will be an adjunct professor for the
spring semester. He will be teaching food and drug law which he
currently teaches at University of Minnesota along with negotiation,
ADR, and corporate compliance courses. Mr. Hall is also currently
working on a natural science foundation grant concerning the regulatory
oversight of nanotechnology including but not limited to Food and Drug
Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Agricultural
concerns. Professor Hall works for Baker & Daniels in their
food and drug law and corporate compliance divisions. He has
several publications on a variety of health law issues including, but
not limited to, nanotechnology, compliance, and clinical trials.
Professor Hall has extensive experience in the area of food and drug
law, health care law and corporate compliance. "We are thrilled
that Professor Hall is sharing his wealth of knowledge in the the
health law field with our students," says Professor Eleanor
Kinney.
 New Associate Professor of Law: Ms. Emily Morris
The Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis is excited to welcome Associate Professor Emily Morris
to their faculty. She teaches patent law, copyright law and
intellectual property courses and is interested in health law and
bioethics law. Prior to joining the Indiana University School of Law
Indianapolis faculty Professor Morris was a visiting
associate professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she taught
both Patent Law and Patent Litigation. She earned her A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School (magna cum laude
), where she was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review .
After law school, Professor Morris clerked for the Honorable Bruce M.
Selya on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and then
worked for three years as an associate in the Issues & Appeals
section of the Washington, DC office of Jones Day. She also served as
an adjunct assistant professor and Humphrey Fellow in Law and Economic
Policy at the John M. Olin Center for Law and Economics, University of
Michigan Law School. Professor Eleanor Kinney says, "Professor
Morris is a wonderful addition to the Indiana University School of
Law-Indianapolis faculty."
 Consortium for Health Policy, Law and Bioethics
The Indiana University Center for
Bioethics, the Hall Center for Law and Health and the new Center for
Health Policy share a commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry and
research. Collectively they contain different but complementary skills
and expertise in ethics, law and policy. Moreover, they share a common
research vision, interests and values in areas of the life sciences. To
advance these common interests, the centers established the Consortium
for Health Policy, Law and Bioethics, an IUPUI Signature Center. The
director's of the three consortium centers serve as co-directors of the
Consortium and are Professor Eleanor Kinney for the Hall Center for Law
and Health, Professor Eric Meslin for the IU Center for Bioethics and
Professor Eric Wright for the Center for Health Policy. The founding
vision is to create an innovative and dynamic environment to facilitate
research, education, and public policy service on issues in health
care, health and science policy, and the life sciences. The consortium
is not a new program or center. Rather it is an initiative to enhance
the capacity of the three participating centers and to lay the
groundwork for other programs and centers to work in areas of common
interest. The Consortium's mission is to provide an innovative,
interdisciplinary organizational environment that enhances existing
IUPUI/IU capacity in health policy, law and bioethics. The Consortium
will strive to inform social and public policy in health, facilitate
cross-cutting interdisciplinary research, and support current and
developing degree and certificate programs. The Consortium will fulfill
its mission through education, research, and public outreach/service
functions. To contribute to the educational attribute of the
Consortium the Health Law E-newsletter hopes to begin to include
articles that incorporate not only health law but bioethics and health
policy issues. For more information about the Consortium for
Health Policy, Law and Bioethics please visit their website at
http://hplb.iupui.edu/index.html. |
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Lawrence W. Inlow Hall
530 West New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225
Tel. 317-274-8523 Fax 317-274-3955
Comments: eallingt@iupui.edu
http://indylaw.indiana.edu
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