More than ever before, the legal system plays a vital role in virtually every aspect of the current health care system. From the congressional debate over patients' rights legislation to judicial rulings on the denial of health care services, the legal system is integrally involved in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care. This book explains how the legal system helps shape health care delivery and policy, explores new ways of looking at the relationship between law and medicine, and reflects on why it all matters. The story focuses on the judicial response to the advent of managed care, especially challenges to cost containment initiatives, and shows how the legal system has facilitated managed care's dominance over the health care system. An equally important part of the story is the evolution of the relationship between physicians and attorneys and how their mutual antagonism affects patient care. In the end, the stories come together around a strategy for reconciling the difficult health policy choices the country faces and for restoring the physician-patient relationship to the center of health care delivery.

The Fourth Edition of ERISA: A Comprehensive Guide provides a thorough and authoritative analysis of the principal statutory provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the corresponding provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) dealing with employee benefits. It also discusses and explains the multitude of regulations, rulings, and interpretations issued by the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in explanation of ERISA; the Code provisions relating to the requirements for tax-qualified retirement plans; and the subsequent legislation amending or supplementing ERISA and such Code provisions. Cited by the Supreme Court, ERISA: A Comprehensive Guide discusses and explains the multitude of regulations, rulings, and interpretations issued by the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in explanation of ERISA and the subsequent legislation amending or supplementing ERISA. ERISA: A Comprehensive Guide has been updated to include: A new chapter that focuses on the key federal employment laws, such as the antidiscrimination, wage and hour, and leave laws, which often must be considered by benefits professionals when providing benefits advice to their clients A revised chapter on ERISA preemption, which includes a new discussion of what constitutes a "plan" for purposes of applying ERISA preemption and an updated discussion of the impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Cigna Corp. v. Amara on ERISA preemption A summary of the requirement of providing health plan participants with a Summary of Benefits and Coverage has been added to the discussion of benefit plan notice requirements An update on recent court decisions involving 401(k) fee litigation and the extent to which excessive or undisclosed fees can constitute a breach of ERISA fiduciary duty. The Department of Labor's final regulations issued under ERISA Section 408(b)(2), regarding the disclosure that must be made by service providers to plan fiduciaries concerning the direct and indirect compensation that the service providers receive in connection with providing services to a covered plan A discussion regarding the income tax consequences of employer-paid COBRA premiums A discussion regarding successor liability in asset sale transactions has been added to the chapter on mergers and acquisitions A discussion regarding the extent to which an employer's interference with the benefits of union supporters may constitute an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act

The third edition of this award-winning textbook has been revised and thoroughly updated. Building on the success of the previous editions, it continues to address the history and practice of forensic psychiatry, legal regulation of the practice of psychiatry, forensic evaluation and treatment, psychiatry in relation to civil law, criminal law and family law, as well as correctional forensic psychiatry. New chapters address changes in the assessment and treatment of aggression and violence as well as psychological and neuroimaging assessments.