AMERICAN UNIVERSITY | WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW
Health Law & Policy Brief
The Health Law & Policy Brief is an online publication run by law students at American University Washington College of Law. Founded in 2007, the Health Law & Policy Brief publishes articles on a wide array of cutting-edge topics in health law. Such topics include health care compliance, fraud and abuse enforcement, health insurance payment and reimbursement issues, intellectual property issues, international human rights issues, FDA initiatives and policies, and a host of other matters. Beginning with a staff of just five, the Health Law & Policy Brief now boasts over twenty members and nearly 1,500 readers.
Current Issue
Volume 18, Issue 1
Latest from the Blog
An Examination of the Freedom of Choice in Healthcare in the Context of Right-to-Die Cases
In the United States, the right-to-die through physician-assisted-suicide (“PAS”) and euthanasia has been hotly debated for years. Scholars define PAS as the “prescription of lethal medication to be voluntarily self-administered.” Conversely, euthanasia is defined as the “deliberate, direct causation of death by a physician.” Although “medical assistance in dying” […]
State Drug Pricing Boards Face Legal Test in Colorado
Federal efforts to rein in prescription drug costs have attracted media coverage and legal opposition. Now, innovative state efforts to limit drug price increases are attracting significant legal scrutiny. At the end of March, Amgen filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado seeking […]
Enforcing Safe and Habitable Housing as a Pandemic Preparedness Strategy
Four years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are already planning for the next one. In addition to strengthening disease detection systems, pandemic preparedness should prioritize improving the condition of rental housing in the U.S. to eradicate health disparities and better position the tenant population to weather the […]
The Current Shroom Boom: A Recap of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Across the United States
The use of psychedelic substances to heal the mind and body is anything but new. For millennia, Indigenous peoples across the globe have used plants with psychedelic properties for “medicinal, ceremonial, and divinatory purposes.” However, Western medicine has been slow to embrace psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). The United States’ Tense History […]
The Anti-Kickback Statute and The Stark Law: Laws Working to Limit Health Fraud
In February 2020, Dominic Trumbo, a patient recruiter based out of Lexington, Kentucky was sentenced to 60 months in prison for receiving over $1 million in illegal kickback money from several home health agencies throughout the nation in exchange for information on Medicare beneficiaries. Trumbo instructed his employees to cold-call […]