Essentials of Health Policy and Law

Overview

Instructor Resources: PowerPoints, Sample Syllabus, TestBank, Health Reform

Essentials of Health Policy and Law provides students of public health with a firm foundation of the basics of American health policy and law.

Given the prominent role played by policy and law in the health of all Americans, the aim of this book is to help readers understand the broad context of health policy and law, the essential policy and legal issues impacting and flowing out of the health care and public health systems, and the way health policies and laws are formulated. Think of this textbook as an extended manual—introductory, concise, and straightforward—to the seminal issues in U.S. health policy and law, and thus as a jumping off point for discussion, reflection, research, and analysis.

Features:

• Chapters are structured to allow for the teaching of policy and law in tandem or separately.
• Includes a chapter on analytic skills for public health students, including how to write a policy analysis.
• Each chapter includes discussion questions to engage student reflection.
• Accompanied by Essential Readings in Health Policy and Law (available in 2008)—a compilation of carefully selected readings meant to allow for deeper analysis of issues covered in this textbook.
• A complete package of instructor resources.

• Table of Contents

  PART I—Overview of Policy and Law in the United States

  Chapter 1. Introduction: Understanding the Role of and Conceptualizing Health Policy and Law

  A. Introduction
  B. The Role of Policy and Law in Health Care and Public Health
  C. Conceptualizing Health Policy and Law
  D. Conclusion

  Chapter 2. Policy and the Policymaking Process

  A. Introduction
  B. Defining Policy
  C. Public Policymaking Structure and Process
  D. Interest Groups
  E. Conclusion

  Chapter 3. Law and the Legal System

  A. Introduction
  B. The Role of Law
  C. The Definition and Sources of Law
  D. Key Features of the Legal System
  E. Conclusion

  PART II—Essential Issues in Health Policy and Law

  Chapter 4. Understanding Health Insurance

  A. Introduction
  B. Health Insurance Coverage
  C. A Brief History of the Rise of Health Insurance in the U.S.
  D. How Health Insurance Operates
  E. Managed Care
  F. Conclusion

  Chapter 5. Health Economics in a Health Policy Context

  A. Introduction
  B. Health Economics Defined
  C. Economic Basics: Demand
  D. Economic Basics: Supply
  E.  Economic Basics: Markets
  F. Conclusion

  Chapter 6. Government Health Insurance Programs: Medicaid, SCHIP, and Medicare

  A. Introduction
  B. Entitlements and Block Grants
  C. Medicaid
  D. State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
  E. Medicare
  F. Conclusion

  Chapter 7. The Uninsured and Health Reform

  A. Introduction
  B. Characteristics of the Uninsured
  C. The Importance of Health Insurance Coverage to Health Status
  D. Ways to Count the Cost of Uninsurance
  E. Safety Net Providers
  F. Health Reform
  G. Unsuccessful Attempts to Pass National Health Insurance Reform
  H. State Health Reform
  I. Conclusion

  Chapter 8. Individual Rights in Health Care and Public Health

  A. Introduction
  B. Background
  C. Individual Rights and Health Care: A Global Perspective
  D. Individual Rights and the Health Care System
  E. Individual Rights in a Public Health Context
  F. Conclusion

  Chapter 9. Health Care Quality Policy and Law

  A. Introduction
  B. Medical Errors as a Public Health Concern
  C. Promoting Health Care Quality Through the Standard of Care
  D. Tort Liability of Hospitals, Insurers, and Managed Care Organizations
  E. Federal Preemption of State Liability Laws Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
  F. Conclusion

  PART III—Basic Skills in Health Policy Analysis

  Chapter 10. The Art of Structuring and Writing a Health Policy Analysis

  A. Introduction
  B. Policy Analysis Overview
  C. Structuring a Policy Analysis
  D. Conclusion

  About the Author(s)

   

  Joel B. Teitelbaum, JD, LLM-Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University

  Joel Teitelbaum, J.D., LL.M., is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Health Policy and the Managing Director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program at The George Washington University Medical Center’s School of Public Healthand Health Services (SPHHS).   He has taught graduate courses in health care law, public health law, minority health policy, and long-term care law and policy, and an undergraduate survey course in health law, and he has authored or co-authored many articles and policy papers on civil rights issues in health care, managed care, and behavioral health care quality. 

   

  Professor Teitelbaum is a co-recipient of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, which he used to explore the creation of a new framework for applying Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to the modern health care system.   He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Study of Race and Bioethics at the DePaul University College of Law, and as a faculty mentor to Project HEALTH D.C., part of a national student organization addressing socioeconomic, medical, and environmental causes of poor health in low-income children.  He also assists in the editing of the Public Health Law Section of Public Health Reports, the bi-monthly journal of the U.S. Public Health Service.
  

  Sara E. Wilensky, JD, MPP-Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University

  Sara Wilensky, JD, MPP is an Assistant Research Professor of Health Policy and the Managing Director of the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy at The George Washington University Medical Center’s School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). She co-teaches one of two core health policy analysis courses required of all health policy majors in the Masters of Public Health degree program at SPHHS. In addition, she teaches the introductory health policy course required of all undergraduate public health majors, and is assisting with the development and teaching of the final seminar course required of all undergraduate public health majors.

   

  Professor Wilensky has been the principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or lead attorney on numerous projects relating to various aspects of financing and access to community health center services, public financing and access to HIV preventive care, financing of public hospitals, and data sharing barriers and opportunities between Public Health and Medicaid agencies.