CURRICULUM
The Health Law Institute offers a large and comprehensive health law curriculum. In addition, Follow this link to see a list of faculty who teach health law courses.
CORE HEALTH LAW COURSES:
1) HEALTH LAW: QUALITY OF CARE AND LIABILITY (3 Credits):
This is an introductory course examining how the regulatory and legal systems approach quality of care. The focus will be on mechanisms for assuring quality of care including self regulation, credentialing, the doctor-patient relationship, professional licensure, government regulation, and the tort system. Examination of the tort system will focus on confidentiality obligations (including HIPAA), informed consent, and hospital and managed care liability. The course will review the role of ERISA in both managed care liability and health plan regulation. Finally, the course will provide an overview of how the public health system operates to protect both our health care and our civil rights. At the end of the course, students will have examined both the law and policy issues such as the problems arising from medical errors and the struggle to balance the need for quality against rising costs and lack of health care access. The curriculum focuses on cases applying administrative and common law, as well as a variety of statutory schemes.
2) HEALTH LAW ORGANIZATION AND FINANCE (3 Credits)
This course addresses the regulation, structure, and financing of the American health care system. It will focus on the cost and access issues which permeate health care. The class will examine how health care is funded through both private and public insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid. The obligations of hospitals and professionals to treat the uninsured will be reviewed, as well as the policy questions about addressing access to the large uninsured population. The course will also review the forms and structure of health care enterprises, with a focus on the creation and regulation of tax-exempt organizations. The fraud and abuse laws, including the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback law and STARK, will be reviewed both from the perspective of the compliance department and of the lawyer who must structure health care entities with these laws in mind. Finally, the course will review how the antitrust laws impact the structure and conduct of health care providers.
3) LAW AND BIOETHICS (2 credits)
This course covers constitutional and statutory rights of patients, as well as ethical and policy concerns in the area of medical treatment, including confidentiality, informed consent, right to treatment, and bioethical concerns involving matters such as emerging reproductive, transplant and life support technologies.4) CLINIC, PRACTICUM or COMPETITION:
HEALTH LAW CLINIC (3 credits): As one of Hamline's eleven clinics, the Health Law Clinic offers students the opportunity to represent individuals who are parties in health law related administrative hearings. Clients may include persons with medical needs or disabilities who encounter barriers to their eligibility for health care. Clients may also include healthcare workers with licensing issues. Students will gain experience in interviewing, counseling, and litigating these cases as well as exposure to law governing health care licensure and Medicaid eligibility and finance. Students are required to complete 130 hours, consisting of 60 hours of class work and 70 hours of case work.
Law students represent clients under the Minnesota Certified Student Practice Rule and are supervised by Hamline clinical faculty or adjunct faculty members who are experienced practitioners. Cases are chosen to maximize student interaction with clients and foster student control and responsibility for every aspect of case management. As a certified student attorney, you will have the opportunity to experience being a lawyer with all its excitement, challenge, frustration, and reward.
Prerequisite or concurrent: Professional Responsibility
HEALTH LAW PRACTICUM (3 credits, pass/fail): Practicums are externships with limited enrollment, and include a classroom component accounting for one credit hour, plus a minimum of 114 hours of field work in the practicum area. Students are supervised by a full-time faculty member; the classroom component is taught by an adjunct professor experienced in the practicum area; and the field placement is supervised by an attorney-mentor. Practicum Areas: Administrative Law, Legislation and Lobbying, Public Interest, Private Attorney, Health Law or General.
Health Law placements are anticipated in local hospitals, health plans, advocacy groups and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
Prerequisite or concurrent: Professional Responsibility and other specific coursework depending on the type of practicum.
HEALTH LAW MOOT COURT COMPETITION (2 credits, pass/fail): Hamline's moot court program offers students the opportunity to refine their writing and speaking skills by participating in regional, national, and international competitions against students from other law schools. Students are mentored by faculty, attorneys, judges, and alumni coaches.
Tryouts for the Health Law Moot Court Team are held each spring for next fall's competition. Up to four students are selected to participate in the National Health Law Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the American College of Legal Medicine and Southern Illinois University School of Law. This is an appellate-type competition, which requires researching and writing an appellate brief as well as presenting oral arguments to judges and lawyers from the health law community.
SPECIALIZED COURSES:
PUBLIC HEALTH LAW (2 credits)
This course addresses governmental powers, duties and limits as regards the health of the American population. It emphasizes the relationship between law and policy issues concerning state intervention in health affairs, which can implicate constitutional issues of federal power and individual rights. The course will include topics such as the regulation of public health research, governmental promotion of health practices, control of infectious diseases, the use of humans as research subjects, and governmental response to natural disasters, quarantine, forced inoculation, and bioterrorism.
MENTAL HEALTH LAW (2 credits)
This course examines the legal and ethical duties that apply to mental health care providers, as well as the rights of individuals with mental illness, intellectual disabilities, neurodegenerative diseases, alcohol and drug dependency, and brain injuries. Special attention is given to the licensing, certification, and accreditation of mental health care providers; informed consent to mental health treatment and behavioral research; the confidentiality of mental health records under Minnesota and federal law; the requirements for using physical and chemical restraints, seclusion, and electroconvulsive therapy; the question of whether patients have a right to mental health care; the prerequisites for involuntary mental health commitment; mental health parity legislation; and the burgeoning field of neuroethics.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: THEORY & PRACTICE (2 credits)
Introduces the law of medical malpractice, combining review of substantive law with simulation exercises from discovery to the trial of a malpractice case. Subject areas include tort and contract theories of liability, informed consent and right to treatment, procedural and evidentiary aspects of malpractice claims including expert testimony and scientific evidence, and defenses including indemnity and contribution and comparative fault.
HIPAA PRIVACY (2 credits)
This course offers an in-depth exploration of the federal health information confidentiality rule known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Special attention is given to the duties that apply to covered entities when they use and disclose protected health information and the rights that patients have with respect to their health information. This course equips the law student with the information and skills necessary to serve as an institutional HIPAA privacy officer or a government enforcement officer.
FOOD AND DRUG LAW (2 credits)
This course will focus on the regulation of food, drugs and medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Students will learn about the statutory framework involved with particular emphasis on the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Students will learn FDA’s interpretation and enforcement of its statutes and regulations and will gain insight into FDA’s decision-making processes and policies.
CRITICAL LOOK AT HEALTH CARE CONFLICT RESOLUTION (2 credits)
Offered through Hamline’s Dispute Resolution Institute. The course focuses on alternative methods of managing and resolving legal disputes that arise within healthcare organizations.
ELDER LAW (2 Credits)
This course examines the legal issues raised by our nation's growing elder population. Special attention is given to the housing and health care needs of the elderly; liability and advocacy issues; financing of elder care; life and estate planning; guardianship; conservatorship, advance directives and end-of-life decisions; and elder abuse and neglect.
FRAUD AND ABUSE (2 credits)
This course examines federal and state laws and regulations that impose criminal and civil penalties on health care providers for fraudulent and wasteful activities. Special attention is given to federal False Claims and Anti-kickback statutes, physician self-referral (Stark) laws, civil monetary penalty and exclusion laws, and the application of traditional federal white collar criminal laws to health care. The course also examines how these laws drive the structure of health care enterprises. This course is particularly important for students interested in health care regulation, compliance or transactional work.
THE BUSINESS OF HEALTHCARE: MANAGED CARE AND BEYOND (2 credits)
This course is a critical underpinning for students interested in pursuing either compliance/regulatory work or policy development in healthcare. The history of the current healthcare financing system will be studied to understand why the current structures exist and how culturally embedded—or open to change—they may be. The course will further review the current pricing, coverage and practice management systems in health care and how they relate to laws such as HIPAA and the Antikick back statutes. Technology systems in place and being developed to assist clinicians and patients (such as practice management, consumer portals and payers connectivity systems) will also be critically examined from both a business and legal perspective. Finally, the impact of these technology systems and the current push towards consumer driven health care will be reviewed.
COMPARATIVE HEALTH LAW (2 credits; one credit during J-term)
This course uses an international, or comparative, approach to examine rights to health care, consent to treatment, human subjects research, organ donation, assisted reproduction, abortion, the withholding and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, assisted suicide, quarantine, and public and private health care delivery systems. Special attention is given to relevant health care policies in Israel, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Belgium, and the United States.
PATIENTS' RIGHTS (2 credits)
This course explores the rights of patients and other health care consumers. Special attention is given to the scope and limitations of patient and consumer rights relating to choice of care, refusal of care, continuity of care, requesting pain medication, access to medically necessary treatments, organ donation, autopsy, restraint, seclusion, association, videotaping of birth, videotaping for safety, grievances, personal property, confidentiality, and privacy. The process for appealing adverse coverage decisions will be explored under the various programs including state insurance laws, ERISA, Medicare, and Medicaid. In addition to providing an overview of patient rights, the course is designed to provide the legal framework for patient advocates in health care.
FORENSIC MEDICINE (2 credits)
This course examines the application of science to legal questions in the civil and criminal contexts. Special attention is given to the legal role of the medical examiner, the admissibility of forensic medical evidence, the qualification of forensic medical expert witnesses, and other related issues.
COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND THE LAW (2 credits)
This course examines the legal and ethical issues raised by the delivery of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Special attention is given to the licensure and regulation of chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, midwifery, massage therapy, and herbal medicine; the historical bias of physicians and health insurance companies against CAM providers; legal issues relating to collaboration with CAM providers, including medical staff membership, clinical privileges, ordering, and referrals; truth-in-advertising by CAM providers; insurance coverage of CAM; and CAM malpractice.
HEALTH CARE COMPLIANCE (2 Credits)
Compliance is the process of meeting the expectations of others. In the health care field, it is the process of helping health care professionals understand and meet the expectations of those who grant money, pay for services, and regulate the health care industry. Health care compliance includes numerous issues such as reimbursement, grant accounting, managed care, OSHA and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations regulations, licensure, and due diligence to prevent and detect violations of the law. As health care becomes more heavily regulated, there is an increased demand for professions who understand the compliance process. This course provides an overview of the tools required to implement and maintain an effective health care compliance program.
COMPLEMENTARY COURSES:
LEGISLATION (2 credits)
Study of statutes and legislative materials as they are used in litigation. Emphasis is on the interpretation of statutes by courts and the use of extrinsic aids in determining legislative intent.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (3 credits)
Examines the powers and procedures of administrative agencies in investigation, rulemaking, adjudication, and informal actions; as well as the interrelation of administrative agencies with the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government in the development of public policy.
INSURANCE LAW (3 credits)
Considers principles governing the making, interpretation and regulation of various types of insurance contracts, and methods of resolution of insurance disputes.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND UNFAIR COMPETITION (3 credits)
This course provides an overview of intellectual property and unfair competition law by examining relevant common law principles and state and federal statutes. The substantive provisions of the law governing trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and patents are explored in detail.
PATENT LAW (2 credits)
This course will focus on an advanced and in-depth investigation of patent law including the requirements of patentability, the patentability of various traditional and nontraditional subject matters (e.g., computer software and biotechnology), the process of securing patent protection including the procedures of the U.S. Patent Office as well as post allowance procedures, licensing of patents, and issues confronting the patentee and an alleged infringer including the burdens and presumptions surrounding patent validity, the standard for infringement, and available remedies.Recommended Prerequisite: Intellectual Property
ANTITRUST LAW (3 credits)
Examines legal protection of the competitive system under the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and related legislation, including monopoly power, horizontal and vertical restraints on competition, and related problems.
CORPORATIONS (3 credits)
Introduces the legal and business issues pertaining to corporations, both closely-held and publicly traded. Topics include corporate formation, structure and governance, as well as the rights and liabilities of management and shareholders.
TAX II: TAXATION OF BUSINESS ENTITIES (3 credits)
Examines the income tax law as it relates to corporations, partnerships, trusts, and estates.
Prerequisite: Tax I: Taxation of Individuals
Recommended Prerequisites: Corporations; Accounting for Lawyers
