Health Care’s Other “Big Deal”: Direct Primary Care Regulation in Contemporary American Health Law

Direct primary care is a promising, market-based alternative to the fee-for-service payment structure that shapes doctor–patient relationships in America. Instead of billing patients and insurers service by service, direct primary care doctors charge their patients a periodic, prenegotiated fee in exchange for providing a wide range of healthcare services and increased availability compared to traditional practices. This “subscription” model is intended to eliminate the administrative burdens associated with insurer interaction, which, in theory, allows doctors to spend more time with their patients and less time doing paperwork. Direct practices have become increasingly popular since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This growth has been driven by legislation in several states that resolves a number of legal questions that slowed the model’s growth and by the ACA’s recognition of the model as a permissible way to cover primary care in “approved” health plans. Yet legal scholars have hardly focused on direct primary care. Given the model’s growth, however, the time is ripe for a more focused legal inquiry. This Note begins that inquiry. After tracing the model’s evolution and its core components, this Note substantively examines the laws in states that regulate direct practices and analyzes how those laws address a number of potential policy concerns. It then analyzes direct primary care’s broader role in the contemporary American healthcare marketplace. Based upon that analysis, this Note concludes that direct primary care is a beneficial innovation that harmonizes well with a cooperative-federalism-based healthcare policy model

Seeking Rights, Not Rent: How Litigation Finance Can Help Break Music Copyright\u27s Precedent Gridlock

Since its inception, litigation finance has steadily grown in prevalence and popularity in the United States. While many scholars have examined its merits, few have considered litigation finance specifically in the context of copyright law. This is most unfortunate, for there, a vicious cycle has taken hold: high litigation costs discourage many market participants from taking cases to trial or summary judgment in order to vindicate their legal rights, even when they have strong cases. Thus, parties settle almost every case, which in turn prevents resolution of longstanding precedential questions in critical areas of copyright law. The legal uncertainty resulting from this precedential gridlock generates higher avoidance costs and poses more financial risks for market participants, particularly less-heeled or less-established parties. This Note proposes one way in which litigation finance could help break that cycle. Specifically, rights holders and defendants alike can use litigation finance to fund strategic-litigation campaigns to pressure the development of precedent. To illustrate how this might work, this Note examines litigation finance in the narrow context of music copyright, an area that perfectly illustrates the problems besetting copyright law writ large. In doing so, this Note flips a popular criticism of litigation finance on its head: while some scholars argue that litigation finance can distort litigation strategy by encouraging litigants to reject mutually beneficial settlements, it is normatively desirable to do so given the unsettled state of music copyright law

Effectiveness of computer-based, modified computer-based and workshop training in the learning/application of leadership skills

This study examined the effectiveness of training methods in effective leadership principles. Forty-two male and female Introductory Psychology students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: computer-based training (CBT), computer-based training with videotaped vignettes (CBTV), or group-based workshop training with videotaped vignettes (GBW). Training effectiveness was assessed on two dependent variables, pretest/posttest scores in conceptual knowledge and pretest/posttest scores in applied knowledge. Only partial support was found for the hypothesis that there would be significant differences in mean pretest and mean posttest scores on both conceptual and applied knowledge as a result of training method. Method of training was not found to significantly affect these mean scores on either dependent variable. However, training in general was found to significantly increase mean scores for both conceptual knowledge and applied knowledge of effective leadership principles

The Historical Case for Constitutional Concepts

The concepts/conceptions dichotomy is prominent in both the philosophy of language and the field of constitutional interpretation. It is most prominently illustrated through the provisions in the Constitution that contain broad, open-ended moral language. Those who hold the “conceptions” view believe that the legal content of those provisions includes both abstract moral concepts and its communicators’ subjective beliefs about, or conceptions of, how those concepts should apply. Under this view, the judge’s role is mostly empirical: he is tasked with examining historical evidence to ascertain those conceptions, which in turn supply applicational criteria by which he can decide specific cases. Alternatively, those who hold the “concepts,” or conceptual, view believe that the Constitution’s language directs the reader to objective moral concepts only; hence, its legal content does not contain any particular person’s or group of persons’ conceptions of those concepts. Thus, under this view, the judge’s task is mostly analytical: he must attempt to analyze the concepts to ascertain their defining criteria and develop applicational criteria from that analysis. Through a focused study of the interpretive methods of William Cushing, James Madison, and lawmakers in the Virginia House of Delegates, this article demonstrates that this debate has existed since at least the founding era, and that the above-named founding era authorities held a conceptual view of the Constitution’s language, as evidenced by the logic-driven, as opposed to historical, research-driven, mode of construction they employed to apply the Constitution’s provisions to particular cases. Specifically, they analyzed the Constitution’s text, structure, and moral authority to develop an American conception of the concept at issue—a conception wholly unconcerned with the subjective beliefs of any particular person or polity as to how the concept should apply. Finally, this article sets forth a preliminary sketch of the conceptual approach’s normative claim. It concludes that the conceptual approach taken by these authorities better respects the constitutional text, the Rule of Law, and the ideal of objectivity in law than those that seek to derive legal content from the conceptions of past actors

A microcontroller system for investigating the catch effect: Functional electrical stimulation of the common peroneal nerve

Correction of drop foot in hemiplegic gait is achieved by electrical stimulation of the common peroneal nerve with a series of pulses at a fixed frequency. However, during normal gait, the electromyographic signals from the tibialis anterior muscle indicate that muscle force is not constant but varies during the swing phase. The application of double pulses for the correction of drop foot may enhance the gait by generating greater torque at the ankle and thereby increase the efficiency of the stimulation with reduced fatigue. A flexible controller has been designed around the Odstock Drop Foot Stimulator to deliver different profiles of pulses implementing doublets and optimum series. A peripheral interface controller (PIC) microcontroller with some external circuits has been designed and tested to accommodate six profiles. Preliminary results of the measurements from a normal subject seated in a multi-moment chair (an isometric torque measurement device) indicate that profiles containing doublets and optimum spaced pulses look favourable for clinical use

A probabilistic approach to quantum Bayesian games of incomplete information

A Bayesian game is a game of incomplete information in which the rules of the game are not fully known to all players. We consider the Bayesian game of Battle of Sexes that has several Bayesian Nash equilibria and investigate its outcome when the underlying probability set is obtained from generalized Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen experiments. We find that this probability set, which may become non-factorizable, results in a unique Bayesian Nash equilibrium of the game.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Quantum Information Processin

Apollo

A description of the Apollo Missions is described. The astronauts involved, the equipment used, the spacecraft flown, and the exploration of the moon are described

A Transportation Alliance of Environmental Horticulture Producers in Georgia: Issues and Feasibility

Transportation and shipping costs of ornamental horticulture are 10% of total cost of production in Georgia. With many small to medium sized producers using their own independent transportation system, methods to optimize vehicle operations are desired. Will a transportation alliance reduce shipping costs, increase distribution efficiencies, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions among ornamental plants producers in Georgia? The study shows alliances are not only feasible, they have average total cost savings of 9%, average total miles driven savings of 8%, average number of trucks savings of 8%, average driving hours savings of 15%, and average carbon dioxide emissions savings of 8%.transportation, logistics, efficiencies, savings, environmental horticulture, Agribusiness,

Perforation of Bowel Associated with Blunt Abdominal Trauma in Children

Motor vehicle accidents remain the commonest cause of abdominal trauma in children, but there are many situations that expose the child more particularly to blunt abdominal trauma. In order to avoid unnecessary delay in diagnosis, a plan of management is proposed, based on our experience with 4 cases of abdominal trauma. The need for early diagnosis is emphasised

LTV beta-bremsstrahlung spectrometer for Gemini 12 Final report

Design and operation of combination bremsstrahlung spectrometer and data processor for radiation monitoring during Gemini 7 fligh