Professor Stacey Tovino Places Three New Articles

Professor Stacey Tovino placed three new law review articles in the Tulane Law Review, University of Richmond Law Review, and Kentucky Law Journal. Titled “Lost in the Shuffle: How Health and Disability Laws Hurt Problem Gamblers,” the first article examines the legal treatment of individuals with gambling disorder under health, disability benefit, and anti-discrimination laws. As background, gambling disorder is not a legally sympathetic health condition. Health insurance policies and plans have long excluded treatment for gambling disorder from health insurance coverage. Individuals with gambling disorder who seek disability income insurance benefits from public and private disability income insurers also tend not to be successful in their claims. In addition, federal and state anti-discrimination laws currently exclude individuals with gambling disorder from disability discrimination protections. Professor Tovino’s article is the first law review article to challenge the legal treatment of individuals with gambling disorder by showing how health insurance and anti-discrimination laws hurt problem gamblers. Using neuroscience, economics, and principles of biomedical ethics to argue that individuals with gambling disorder should have the same legal protections as individuals with other physical and mental health conditions, Professor Tovino’s article proposes important amendments to federal and state health insurance laws and anti-discrimination laws. See Stacey A. Tovino, Lost in the Shuffle: How Health and Disability Laws Hurt Problem Gamblers, 89 TULANE L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2014).

Titled “Silence Is Golden … Except in Health Care Philanthropy,” Professor Tovino’s second article examines the competing aims of health care philanthropy and health information confidentiality. As background, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued final regulations (“Final Regulations”) on January 25 2013, that modify the privacy rule that implements section 264 of the Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. On September 16, 2013, HHS issued a model notice of privacy practices (“Model Notice”) designed to assist covered health care providers in complying with the Final Regulations. Professor Tovino’s article is the first law review article to critique and propose corrections to provisions within the Final Regulations that expand the permissible scope of uses and disclosures of protected health information for fundraising purposes as well as related provisions within the Model Notice that fail to alert patients to these expanded information uses and disclosures. In so doing, Professor Tovino’s article seeks to establish an appropriate balance between health care philanthropy and health information confidentiality. See Stacey A. Tovino, Silence Is Golden … Except in Health Care Philanthropy, 48 U. RICH. L. REV. __ (forthcoming 2014).

Titled “Giving Thanks: The Ethics of Grateful Patient Fundraising,” Professor Tovino’s third article examines the ethical implications of the solicitation of philanthropic donations by health care providers from current and former patients. That is, physicians who solicit philanthropic donations from their own patients risk conflicted health care decision making, health care resource allocation injustices, financial exploitation, and breach of privacy. To lessen these risks, Professor Tovino’s article identifies and reconciles two bioethical catch-22s associated with grateful patient fundraising and proposes new ethical guidelines governing physician involvement in health care philanthropy. See Stacey A. Tovino, Giving Thanks: The Ethics of Grateful Patient Fundraising, 103 KENTUCKY L.J. __ (forthcoming 2015).