Health Law Institute Summer Courses

Course Dates for 2025:

Sunday, 7/06/2024 – Saturday, 7/26/2025 – Finals week to follow
Online
2 academic credits
Course number: 4154

Description

The focus of this course is the privacy and security provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the foundation for federal protections of health care information. Additionally, the course will examine preemption and the interplay between HIPAA and other federal and state health privacy laws, and the application and enforcement of those laws as they relate to privacy and security in the health care setting.

The objectives of this course include learning how to: (i) identify situations that implicate HIPAA; (ii) understand which provisions of the privacy and security law and rules apply to given situations and how to apply those provisions; and (iii) understand the significance of sound security measures in an era of increasing electronic crimes. Given the breadth of the subject matter and the short time allotted, students will not be expected to understand the full depth and complexity of applicable laws and rules; they will, however, be expected to understand key definitions and basic concepts under HIPAA and to analyze the interplay between HIPAA and other privacy laws, including basic preemption.

Faculty

Casey Martin

Course Dates for 2025: Sunday, 5/25/2025 – Saturday, 8/9/2025
Hyflex
2-3 academic credits
Course number: 4028

Description

The Institute of Medicine defines public health as “what we, as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy.” Unlike health care, which focuses on medical interventions to improve the health of individual patients, public health takes a broader look at the wide-ranging determinants of population health. Although various interventions have been devised to protect health at the population level, disparities in health outcomes persist, with marginalized communities–racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, low socioeconomic status people–bearing a disproportionate amount of negative health outcomes. These inequitable health outcomes are largely products of structural and institutional factors that are grounded in the law.

This course will adopt a critical approach to law–along the axes of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity, and class–to examine how the law creates, sustains, and legitimizes inequitable health outcomes. This critical approach will be used to analyze the legal dimensions of current public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the obesity epidemic, tobacco control, healthcare access, natural disasters & climate change, and socio-political determinants of health to challenge students think beyond the traditional paradigms of legal reasoning.

Course meets 6/4-7/9 at the dates and times listed with additional asynchronous work through 8/16.

Faculty

Andrew Twinamatsiko

Course Dates for 2025:

Sunday, 5/25/2025 – Saturday, 6/28/2025 – Finals week to follow
Online
2 academic credits
Course number: 3836

Description

This course examines legal, ethical, and social issues raised by our nation’s growing elder population. It focuses on the practical application of concepts in Elder Law. Special attention is given to 1) ethical issues in elder representation; 2) family issues, such as grandparent rights and marriage; 3) retirement; 4) property management, including joint ownership and financial accounts, trusts, and estate planning; 5) alternative decision-making, including health care directives, powers of attorney, and guardianship and conservatorship; 6) managing and paying for health care, including Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care insurance; 7) health care options and licensing and regulation of health care and housing providers; 8) elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation; 9) remedies, such as criminal, administrative, and civil remedies, including medical malpractice; 10) elder mediation; and 11) end-of-life issues, including POLST and physician aid in dying.

Faculty

Suzy Scheller ’08, Scheller Legal Solutions, LLC

Course Dates for 2025: Sunday, 5/25/2025 – Saturday, 8/9/2025 – Finals week to follow
Online
3 academic credits
Course number: 4160

Description

This course is designed to give students a practical understanding of the laws and regulations, beyond those addressing fraud and abuse, encountered by lawyers and compliance professionals in daily practice. Special attention will be given to barriers and access to health care including the Emergency Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); provider licensure, discipline and due process, and scope of practice; provider, institutional and managed care liability; credentialing, privileges, and peer review; informed consent; research compliance; long term care, end-of-life care, and advance directives; and strategies to mitigate malpractice exposure. Additionally, the course will address the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and related privacy and security regulations, which is the foundation for federal protections of health care information.

Faculty

Jane Blaney and Tyler Cowart