Despite the attention to the problem of protecting the health care interests of Americans, there is little consensus on what should be done politically or otherwise to address this problem. In Protecting American Health Care Consumers Eleanor DeArman Kinney, a nationally regarded expert on health policy and law, tackles the serious and ongoing debate among state and federal policymakers, health care providers, third-party payers, and consumers about how to provide procedural justice to patients in the present health care climate. To promote and ensure consumer protection in an increasingly adversarial and complicated health-care culture, Kinney first analyzes the procedures by which consumer concerns are presently discerned and resolved and then explains why these systems are unsatisfactory. She also discusses problematic procedures for making coverage policy and quality standards and proposes reforms in a variety of processes that would enable all consumers, including the uninsured, to influence key policies and standards and also to raise concerns and obtain appropriate remedies. As the first comprehensive treatment of administrative procedures in American health plans and other such institutions, Protecting American Health Care Consumers will be welcomed by state and federal policymakers, managed care executives, and lawyers charged with designing and implementing protections for consumers in public and private health plans.

Burdened with perennially rising costs and responsible for providing health insurance to more than one sixth of all Americans, Medicare in its original form is fiscally and demographically unsustainable. In light of dramatic reforms under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of Medicare. Eleanor D. Kinney explains how the ACA addresses systemic problems of cost and volume inflation, quality assurance, and fraud. Recognizing the potential for more radical change in the future, Kinney also explores the potential of Medicare to become a single-payer system. Comparisons are made with national health systems in Canada and the United Kingdom, from which the United States can draw valuable lessons. An approachable yet comprehensive account of Medicare and the ACA, this book will be invaluable for health care professionals and informed citizens.

Effective negotiation is essential to the success of any law practice. To help you sharpen your negotiating skills for the challenges you face every day in your professional life, The Lawyer's Guide to Negotiation is a book for lawyers written by lawyers that is uniquely designed to make winning at the negotiating table the norm rather than a hit-or-miss proposition. By following the practical, no-nonsense principles and tactics outlined in this easy-to-read, common-sense guide, you ll find out how to consistently get what you want out of any negotiating session.

The current debate over health reform has been intense and highly polarizing. In 2009, it was dominated by a brouhaha over death panels and talk of government rationing and domination of health care. I will begin my remarks by addressing the provisions of the health reform legislation that precipitated the talk of death panels and the like. Specifically, I will talk about the comparative effectiveness research initiative, which is at the root of the brouhaha over death panels. Then, I will explore the central question of whether comparative effectiveness research really is a contribution to true health reform and can achieve the critical goal of controlling health care costs.

Softbound - New, softbound print book.

Discussions concerning whether there is a natural right to health care may occur in various forms, resulting in policy recommendations for how to implement any such right in a given society. But health care policies may be judged by international standards including the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The rights enumerated in the UDHR are grounded in traditions of moral theory, a philosophical analysis of which is necessary in order to adjudicate the value of specific policies designed to enshrine rights such as a right to health care. We begin with an overview of the drafting of the UDHR and highlight the primary influence of natural law theory in validating the rights contained therein. We then provide an explication of natural law theory by reference to the writings of Thomas Aquinas, as well as elucidate the complementary “capabilities approach” of Martha Nussbaum. We conclude that a right to health care ought to be guaranteed by the state.