Regulating Personal Health Information – 6878

Students will explore the legal frameworks that regulate how personal health information may or may not be shared, and the competing policy goals that often underlie these frameworks: protecting individual privacy and security, on the one hand, and promoting information sharing to enhance the quality of care, on the other. The purpose of the seminar is three-fold. It will provide a more focused overview of the myriad laws, regulations and common contractual arrangements that govern the sharing of personal health information – for example, the evolving body of federal rules and regulations relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA/HITECH) and recent Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Programs promoting “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Record systems, as well as state-specific disclosure rules. In addition, through exposure in the second half of the course to different types of health or health information professionals who work with or on personal health information – for example, nurses, researchers, health businesses, and privacy lawyers or compliance professionals – the seminar will expose students to diverse, real-world experiences with health information-sharing needs and risks. Finally, building on this legal grounding and these contextual “focus sessions,” students will have the opportunity to define specific questions related to sharing personal health information, reflect on the impact of applicable rules and propose changes or additions to them.

Credits
2
Graduation Requirements
Upper Division Legal Writing
Subject Area
Administrative & Regulatory Law
Health Law & Bioethics *
Intellectual Property and Technology *
Student Year
Upper Division
LL.M.
Course type
SEM