Details

This course will survey the legal issues that most frequently arise in healthcare. Students will learn the role of law in promoting healthcare quality, accountability, access, and efficiency. The course covers the tort liability of healthcare professionals and organizations, with a special emphasis on establishing the standard of care and proving negligence in malpractice and informed consent situations. We will also discuss antitrust in healthcare and students will learn about the ways in which antitrust may be applied to preserve competition in healthcare markets where hospitals have been merging to acquire market power and other healthcare providers, including physicians, have engaged in concerted conduct to avoid competition. Because most hospitals and other providers are not-for-profit and enjoy a tax exempt status, we will also cover the tax rules on maintaining that status. Also, healthcare providers rely on government reimbursement and students will learn the fraud and abuse rules that police the integrity of that reimbursement. Finally, the course addresses: the healthcare providers' obligation to provide care; medical records and patient confidentiality; health planning and certificate of need; human reproduction and birth; and decisions about death and dying. The course utilizes a treatise entitled: Health Law by Furrow, et al., and a casebook by the same name and the same set of authors. Both books are required. It is hoped that students will learn to utilize the Furrow treatise as a desk reference when they leave Northwestern. This course is co-listed by the Kellogg School of Management as HIMT 451-0. The class is ten weeks in duration for MBA candidates. This class will meet for 13 weeks; following the law school schedule.