Drake Law School looking for health law/insurance law teacher

Faculty opening at Drake:DRAKE LAW SCHOOL seeks applications for a tenure-track position in the area of health law, insurance law and related fields commencing in the 2008-09 academic year. We are interested in both entry-level and experienced candidates with a J.D. degree and strong academic credentials who exhibit the ability to produce excellent scholarship and become outstanding teachers.

Medicare beneficiaries lag in taking advantage of covered screenings and preventive care

From the Wall Street Journal (via AHLA's Health Law Daily [link should be good for about a week]):CMS says Medicare is spending more on prevention efforts. The Wall Street Journal (8/26, McQueen) reported, "Medicare, the federal health-insurance program for older Americans, increasingly is paying for screening tests and immunizations that previously were not covered. But the vast majority of

Tax-exempt hospitals and "community benefit"

This is a bit tardy but well worth noting here and reading the underlying documents as time permits. In July the IRS issued an interim report on community benefit in the hospital industry (news release), based upon responses to its 2006 questionnaire to 500 hospitals. The Service's main finding: "The report contains preliminary findings on how hospitals, one of the largest components of the

Health Lawyers Weekly, August 10

The AHLA's Health Lawyers Weekly features two articles by lawyers from Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.S.C., on the IRS' publication in the July 26 Federal Register of its final rule for 403(b) plans (a/k/a tax-deferred annuity plans) and DOL's simultaneous publication of Field Assistance Bulletin 2007-02 containing guidance on how 403(b) plans can avoid compliance with ERISA.This week's

NY Times editorial on why the U.S. doesn't have the world's best health system

The Times' editorial looks at the Commonwealth Fund's recent international report card that compared the U.S. with Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the U.K. In the words of the Commonwealth Fund:the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The U.S. is the only

DC Circuit (en banc) reverses panel decision in Abigail Alliance case

The much-anticipated en banc decision of the D.C. Circuit came down today. The court ruled, 8-2, that dying patients do not have a fundamental right of access to drugs that have either just completed Phase I testing or are in Phase II. The big surprise to me was that no-one on the court joined the two judges -- Chief Judge Ginsburg and Judge Rogers -- who comprised the majority in the original

Security issues for hospitals

Scary words: "Hospital = Target"In this week's Health Lawyers Weekly, Mark Rogers analyzes hospital-security issues in a post-9/11 world. The risk is anything but speculative, as this list demonstrates:Several incidents since the attacks of 9/11 have highlighted this risk. Considerthe following:November 2002: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an alert to hospitals in San Francisco