PARA 1210 Syllabus

Subject Code

PARA

Course Number

1210

Course Title

Legal and Policy Issues in Healthcare

Prerequisites

PARA 1100

Corequisites

PARA 1100

Terms Offered

Credit Hours

Course Description

This course provides an overview of the legal issues involved in the delivery of healthcare and the issues relating to Elder Law. Students will recognize the fundamentals of the healthcare treatment relationship, liability issues, patient care decisions, and the human condition of sickness. They will explore the complexities of healthcare financing, healthcare access, governmental regulations, and privacy issues. Topics also include access to care, informed consent, patient care decisions, the doctor-patient relationship, end-of-life decision making, legal problems of the elderly, law and mental health, AIDS and the law, and the privatization of healthcare facilities.

Program Fee: $25

Course Outcomes

Introduction to Law, Medicine, and the Treatment Relationship

  • Identify all the participants in the healthcare process.
  • Discuss the formation and termination of the treatment relationship and the duties owed to third parties.
  • Discuss the issues associated with informed consent for adults, minors, and incompetent adult and the use of release forms.

Liability of Healthcare Professionals

  • Identify the nature of medical mistakes and differing standards of care.
  • Explain the concepts of Res Epsa Loquitur and the Lost Chance Doctrine.
  • Explain the EMTALA statute and the doctrine of respondent superior.

Reproductive Rights and Genetic Technologies

  • Discuss claims of wrongful birth and wrongful conception.
  • Define the legal issues related to abortion, artificial insemination, sterilization, surrogacy, and human genetics.

Life, Death, and Dying

  • Discuss the medical, legal, and ethical considerations pertaining to end of life issues for competent as well as incompetent patients.
  • Explain the system of organ allocation for transplantation in the United States.

Fraud and Abuse and Release of Information

  • Discuss issues of fraud and abuse with regard to the healthcare industry.
  • Discuss HIPAA laws  and their impact on the maintenance of and release of medical information.

Health Care Financing and Reform

  • Identify the major sources of health insurance, both public and private.
  • Summarize the benefits and deficiencies relating to coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance.