Papers by Elizabeth Pendo
The journal of law, medicine & ethics/The Journal of law, medicine & ethics, 2023
tate Medical Boards (SMBs) have the authority to take severe disciplinary measures against physic... more tate Medical Boards (SMBs) have the authority to take severe disciplinary measures against physicians when necessary to protect the pub-lic. Such measures include, but are not limited to, revoking or suspending a physician's license to practice medicine. About 0.5% of physicians are subject to board disciplinary actions annually, and 0.1% of these involve severe disciplinary actions -a rate similar to annual breast cancer diagnoses and much greater than annual HIV diagnoses. Severe disciplinary actions are appropriate when physicians have engaged in egregious wrongdoing that directly harms patients, which includes sexually abusing patients, performing unnecessary surgeries for financial gain, or unlawfully prescribing controlled substances. 2 SMBs vary widely in their use of severe disciplinary action. 3 Some board characteristics are associated with higher rates of severe disciplinary action, including adequate SMB budget and staffing, independence from regional government, and presence of board members who are not physicians. Failures to use severe disciplinary actions to protect the public have attracted significant attention. For example, Dr. Farid Fata, an oncologist in Michigan, purposely misdiagnosed patients with cancer
Vaccine, Apr 1, 2020
Battles around workplace vaccination policies often focus on the annual influenza vaccine, but ma... more Battles around workplace vaccination policies often focus on the annual influenza vaccine, but many healthcare employers impose requirements for additional vaccines because of the increased likelihood that employees in this sector will interact with populations at increased risk of acquiring or experiencing harmful sequelae of vaccine-preventable diseases. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many states recommend healthcare employees receive numerous vaccines, including measles, mumps, and rubella ("MMR"); tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis ("Tdap"). However, recent outbreaks of once-eliminated diseases that are now resurgent and the rising antivaccination movement raise questions about how far employers can go to mandate vaccinations. While healthcare institutions are increasingly mandating that employees receive vaccinations, employee objections to vaccines, including litigation, have increased in recent years. Employer policies must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. Although the ADA permits mandatory vaccine policies under certain circumstances, employers must consider reasonable accommodations, which are changes to the job or work environment that permit the employee with a disability to perform the essential functions of the job, within certain limits. This article analyzes two recent cases which suggest how employers seeking to protect their workforce and the patients they serve by requiring vaccines can work within the framework of the ADA to implement these policies.
Physicians’ Knowledge Of The ADA: The Authors Reply
Health Affairs, Apr 1, 2022
Prescribing Algorithmic Discrimination
SSRN Electronic Journal
Have Almost Fifty Years Of Disability Civil Rights Laws Achieved Equitable Care?
Health Affairs
2021: Disciplining Physicians Who Inflict Harm: New Legal Resources for State Medical Board Members
Serious ethical violations among physicians undermine public trust in the healthcare system and c... more Serious ethical violations among physicians undermine public trust in the healthcare system and cause serious harm to patients. Egregious forms of wrongdoing that direct harm patients, such as sexual abuse, wrongful prescribing of controlled substances, and unnecessary surgeries, are particularly alarming. State medical boards are tasked with protecting the public by ensuring that physicians adhere to ethical guidelines and appropriate standards of care. However, it is unclear why boards sometimes fail to remove seriously offending physicians from practice in a timely manner or what measures would make boards more effective in protecting patients from harmful misconduct. This conference will present the findings of an innovative Greenwall Foundation funded project that provides solutions to this problem. Working directly with state medical board members and other experts, the researchers have developed a consensus on the most important tools and practices needed to protect the public when physicians are accused of egregious wrongdoing, as well as barriers to adopting those tools and practices. The conference will focus on these findings and invite response to a carefully chosen set of recommendations for state statutory provisions for discussion.https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/jhlpsymposia/1000/thumbnail.jp
People with disabilities are vulnerable. They carry high risk for poor health and health outcomes... more People with disabilities are vulnerable. They carry high risk for poor health and health outcomes. As a group, they experience social disadvantages such as poverty, underemployment and unemployment, isolation, and discrimination at a higher rate than the general population. They also face multiple barriers to quality health care and report poorer health status than people without disabilities. This Special Issue will explore the key health disparities and barriers to health care experienced by people with disabilities, and explore the legal, ethical, and social issues they raise. It will investigate the legal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities and other antidiscrimination laws as they apply to health and health care, the implications of health care reform efforts affecting people with disabilities, and other uses of law and policy to promote health determinants, such as access to education and work opportunities, a life in a community, and full participation in society for people with disabilities.
Social Science Research Network, Aug 18, 2020
Protecting the Rights of People with Disabilities SUMMARY. One in four Americans -a diverse group... more Protecting the Rights of People with Disabilities SUMMARY. One in four Americans -a diverse group of 61 million people -experience some form of disability . On average, people with disabilities experience significant disparities in education, employment, poverty, access to health care, food security, housing, transportation, and exposure to crime and domestic violence . Intersections with demographic characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, and LGBT status, may intensify certain inequities. For example, women with disability experience greater disparities in income, education, and employment (Nosek, 2016), and members of underserved racial and ethnic groups with disabilities experience greater disparities in health status and access to health care (Yee, et. al, 2016). These longstanding inequities are compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and by governmental and private responses that discriminate on the basis of disability. Legal protections of people with disabilities are governed by two key federal laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act ("Section 504" or "Rehabilitation Act"). Together, these laws ensure that people with disabilities have equal opportunities in employment, in state and local services and programs, and to goods and services. The broad reach of these laws impact a host of issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Enforcing agencies have provided COVID-19-specific guidance on the application of the laws in health care and in employment. However, gaps in protections as well as widespread lack of knowledge of and noncompliance with the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act limit their impact. Recommendations include: continued enforcement of the laws; clear and current agency guidance on how to comply with the laws; education about the requirements of the laws, especially in health care settings; and improved data collection and reporting.
Social Science Research Network, Oct 11, 2020
The employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were intended to bring w... more The employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were intended to bring working-age people with disabilities into the workplace by providing options for them to seek and gain meaningful, integrated employment. Although the ADA has made significant gains, the rate of progress in employment has been disappointing. While the lack of progress of people with disabilities in the traditional workplace has received attention, the work done by many, especially those with severe disabilities in segregated workplaces, remains hidden in sheltered workshops. This chapter explores the intersection of the concepts of disability, invisibility, and work and identifies the ways in which different and conflicting social and legal constructions of disability perpetuate the segregation and invisibility of people with disabilities in the workplace.
Ensuring that the almost 60 million Americans with disabilities live as healthy and independent l... more Ensuring that the almost 60 million Americans with disabilities live as healthy and independent lives as possible is an important goal for our nation. This evidence-based report highlights efforts to better use law and policy to support and protect people with disabilities. Specifically, it examines how existing federal laws and policies could be leveraged by states, communities, and other sectors to reduce barriers to primary and preventive care; reduce barriers to local health and wellness programs; increase access to leisure, social, or community activities (and indirectly, to religious activities) for individuals with disabilities; and generate better disability data needed to inform and support efforts to reach these and other disability and health objectives. This report also features specific, real-world examples of legal community strategies or interventions, or Laws and Policies in Action, to illustrate how law and policy is used to make progress on each of these objectives.
The American Journal of Bioethics, 2021
provide a robust justification for the decriminalization of drugs based on the systemic racism th... more provide a robust justification for the decriminalization of drugs based on the systemic racism that fuels the "war on drugs" and the ongoing harms of drug policies to individuals. The authors' call for decriminalization is a necessary but insufficient step in addressing the entrenched structural, institutional, and individual discrimination that leads to the inequitable and unjust treatment of people with substance use disorder (PWSUD). Nothing short of robust enforcement of existing legal protections and sweeping legal reforms in the regulation of addiction treatment, controlled substances, health care finance, and civil rights law will be adequate to achieve equity and remedy the malignant injustice in this area. This commentary addresses the widespread subrogation of PWSUD in the health care system, which is characterized by the disempowerment, disparagement, and sometimes outright abandonment of patients-a persistent pattern of mistreatment that would spark outrage and condemnation for people with any other health condition.
Accessibility of Medical Diagnostic Equipment for Patients With Disability: Observations From Physicians
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2019
OBJECTIVE To explore attitudes and practices of physicians relating to accessible medical diagnos... more OBJECTIVE To explore attitudes and practices of physicians relating to accessible medical diagnostic equipment in serving patients with mobility disability. DESIGN Open-ended individual telephone interviews, which reached data saturation. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim for qualitative conventional content analysis. SETTING Massachusetts, the United States, October 2017-January 2018. PARTICIPANTS Practicing physicians from 5 clinical specialties (N=20). INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Common themes concerning physical accessibility. RESULTS Mean ± SD time in practice was 27.5±12.5 years; 14 practices had height-adjustable examination tables; and 7 had wheelchair-accessible weight scales. The analysis identified 6 broad themes: height-adjustable examination tables have advantages; height-adjustable examination tables have drawbacks; transferring patients onto examination tables is challenging; rationale for examining patients in their wheelchairs; perceptions of wheelchair-accessible weight scales; and barriers and facilitators to improving physical accessibility. Major barriers identified by participants included costs of equipment, limited space, and inadequate payment for extra time required to care for persons with disability. Even physicians with accessible examination tables sometimes examined patients seated in their wheelchairs. CONCLUSIONS Even if physicians have accessible equipment, they do not always use it in examining patients with disability. Future efforts will need to consider ways to eliminate these access barriers in clinical practice. Given small sample size, results are not generalizable to physicians nationwide and globally.
disease, one with devastating physical, psychological, and financial effects. 2 Nonetheless, comp... more disease, one with devastating physical, psychological, and financial effects. 2 Nonetheless, comprehensive coverage of infertility treatments under employer-sponsored plans -where, like Jane, most Americans get health insurance 3 -appears to be the exception rather than the rule. 4 Can Jane sue for disability discrimination, sex discrimination, or both? While the answer -"it depends" -should not be surprising to anyone who has survived even a semester of law school, the facts upon which the answer depends are increasingly surprising. Why is Jane infertile? If she went ahead with the uncovered treatment, was it successful? Is Jane's plan insured or funded by her employer? When was the exclusion established? Does the plan treat male infertility more frequently than female infertility? And is Jane married? Underlying these factual and doctrinal issues is the deeper question, should Jane be able to state a claim of discrimination? In other words, why should the exclusion of treatments for infertility such as in Jane's plan be recognized as sex discrimination, disability discrimination, or both? This Article seeks to explore these questions. In the last few years, the federal courts have issued important decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 5 ("Title VII") including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 6 ("PDA") and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 7 ("ADA") regarding insurance coverage of treatments or conditions associated with sex and disability. Notably, the Supreme Court held in the 1998 case Bragdon v. Abbott 8 that reproduction is a major life activity within the meaning of the ADA. Many lawyers, activists and scholars thought that coverage for infertility treatment would (noting that one and one-half times more married African-American women are infertile than married white women) [hereinafter INFERTILITY]. 2. See infra notes 14-33 and accompanying text. 3. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE: 2001, available at www.census.gov/hhes/hlthins/hlthin01/hlth01asc.html (last visited Apr. 9, 2004) (In 2001 62.6% of workers and their families were covered by employer-sponsored health plans.);
Journal of health law, 2004
Several recent films have villainized the health-insurance industry as a central element of their... more Several recent films have villainized the health-insurance industry as a central element of their plots. This Article examines three of those films: Critical Care, The Rainmaker, and John Q. It analyzes these films through the context of the consumer backlash against managed care that began in the 1990s and shows how these films reflect the consumer sentiment regarding health-insurance companies and the cost controlling strategies they employ. In addition, the Article identifies three key premises about health insurance in the films that, although exaggerated and incomplete, have significant factual support. Ultimately, the author argues that, despite their passionately critical and liberal tone, these films actually put forward solutions that are highly individualist and conservative, rather than inclusive and systemic.
Health law: Cases, materials and problems
Journal of Legal Medicine, 1987
Health Law: Cases, Materials and Problems, Furrow, F., Johnson, S., Jost, T., and Schwartz, R. (W... more Health Law: Cases, Materials and Problems, Furrow, F., Johnson, S., Jost, T., and Schwartz, R. (West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1987), 1005 pages (142‐page Teachers Manual available), $34.95.
The Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Custody
Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 1993
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Conte... more Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
Journal of Medical Ethics, 2002
Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity
JAMA, 2007
... Page 11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was jointly conceived by Susan Sered and Rushika Fernan-do... more ... Page 11. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was jointly conceived by Susan Sered and Rushika Fernan-dopulle. ... John Mihelich co-authored chapters 1 and 5. SUSANSERED WRITES This book was truly a collaborative effort. ...
Journal of Legal Medicine, 2008
The Journal of Legal Medicine, 29:117-123 Copyright t 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 0194-7648 ... more The Journal of Legal Medicine, 29:117-123 Copyright t 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 0194-7648 print 11521-057X online DOI: 10.1080101947640701876531 Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity Susan Starr Sered & Rushika ...
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Papers by Elizabeth Pendo