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UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

JAMES E. ROGERS COLLEGE OF LAW


JUNE 29, 2022

Greetings,


Arizona Law has developed a distinctive path in health law, building a wide range of courses and pathways of use to working professionals in health and related fields.


This week, we feature Class of 2022 Health Law Certificate and Master of Legal Studies graduate Tenecia Jackson, who returned to the classroom after working 17 years as a registered nurse.


Health Law & Policy Program Director Tara Sklar also recently spoke at a panel on telehealth at the U.S. Senate. And our Innovation for Justice program has created a new tool to help policymakers see where states rank on medical debt. 

Until the footnotes,


Marc

FEATURE

After 17 Years as a Registered Nurse, MLS and Health Law Certificate Grad Tenecia Jackson Finds a New Way to Make an Impact in Healthcare

“It had been thirteen years since the last time I was in school and had completed my bachelor’s in nursing, so I was nervous to get back into that school mindset,” says Master of Legal Studies (MLS) and Health Law Certificate program grad Tenecia Jackson


Jackson, who has spent the past 17 years as a registered nurse, had just relocated to Los Angeles, California in the fall of 2019, when she was approached by a California law school about its MLS program.  


“I had never heard of an MLS at that point,” says Jackson. “But I had always had an interest in the legal field, so I started to do some research.” 


After learning more about the program and how it could help expand her career options, Jackson decided she would pursue the degree at University of Arizona Law, a choice she attributes to the college’s wide range of MLS concentrations, its affordability and the flexibility to complete all her courses online while continuing to work full-time in Los Angeles.


Read more about Tenecia’s story here.

AROUND THE COLLEGE

Prof. Sklar Speaks at Digital Health Summit Held Recently at U.S. Senate

Pictured above: panelists Jacob Harper of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Prof. Tara Sklar; Jason Goldwater, Christa Natoli, and Ben Steinhafel of CTeL

Tara Sklar, professor of health law and director of the Health Law & Policy Program at the University of Arizona Law, joined the Center for Telehealth and eHealth Law (CTeL) 2022 Digital Health Summit on June 9th at the U.S. Senate as a panelist on “Looking at the Research: Is Telehealth Substitutive or Additive?”.


The Summit was created in response to calls from Fortune 500 companies and telehealth industry practitioners wanting a forum composed of leading thinkers and innovators in the legal and medical communities, including lawyers, executives, doctors, researchers, and operators, to grapple with the issues surrounding the use of emerging technologies that hold potential to improve the delivery of safe and quality medical care.


Many legislative proposals around telehealth are coming to the forefront at the state and federal levels as the flexibilities established under the public health emergency are not yet permanent. Licensure, payment parity, and in-person visit requirements, as several examples, are either only temporarily extended or vary greatly across the country. 


Arizona has long been a leader in telemedicine, spurred by the longstanding leadership of Dr. Ronald Weinstein and the Arizona Telemedicine Program. All are welcome to attend the virtual Arizona Telemedicine Council meeting on July 20 as well as any of the upcoming webinars. See here for the agenda of the July 20 meeting.


Arizona has passed comprehensive telehealth legislation and is leading the nation in this area with HB 2454, which significantly expanded Arizonans’ access to telemedicine, but there is much more to come as this form of health technology continues to advance, alongside patient and provider expectations to expand health care options.

i4Js Innovative Online Scorecard Ranks States by Their Medical Debt Policies

With the newly released Medical Debt Policy Scorecard, policymakers in legislatures across the country can now see how their states rank and exactly where they excel —or fall short—in addressing a mounting medical debt crisis affecting one in five Americans.


MedicalDebtPolicyScorecard.org was developed by Innovation for Justice (i4J), the nation’s first and only cross-discipline, cross-institution, and cross-jurisdiction legal innovation lab, to help states adopt robust policies that prevent medical debt, help consumers avoid court involvement, and ensure that court-involved cases do not result in devastating consequences for the patient.


“We’ve created a truly first-of-its-kind resource that gives policymakers a clear path forward,” said Post-Graduate Fellow Gabriela Elizondo-Craig, Medical Debt Policy Scorecard co-Principal Investigator at i4J, which is housed at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. 


To learn more about this innovative tool, see the full story here. Learn more about i4J at its webpage.

Media Coverage of Debt Scorecard


Since the Medical Debt Policy Scorecard was released, it has been featured in news outlets around the country. Some recent media mentions include:


North Carolina considers new laws to 'de-weaponize' medical debt and protect patients

NPR


Study says Arizona isnt doing enough to protect consumers from high medical debt

Arizona Public Media

 

Kansas and Missouri could and should help rein in medical debt, researchers say

KCUR-Radio


The 15 states with the best and worst medical debt collection protections Becker’s Hospital Review


Colorado is 5th best state for consumer protections from medical debt collections

The Center Square


North Carolina proposes new law to protect patients from medical debt

REVOLT


Arizona Law MLS Alum Receives Leadership Award

Congratulations to Master of Legal Studies alumnus Xavier Segura (’20)! Xavier, a professor at Pima Community College, was recently awarded the Pima Community College Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award. According to a release by the College, “The Leadership Award is presented to those who have demonstrated leadership in developing initiatives that have enhanced and furthered diversity and inclusion goals.”

 

Xavier was nominated for the award by seven of his students. The announcement of the award also included some of the feedback from his students, one of whom wrote that, “Professor Segura is living proof that you can have the greatest impact on your students.”

Arizona Law Sponsors State Bar Event

Arizona Law was the presenting sponsor of the Arizona State Bar Association Convention’s Tuesday Evening Reception on June 28, 2022 at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass. We were joined by over 300 members of the bar. 


Among the alumni and other guests were (pictured above) William Pickett, Ben Taylor (’04), Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel (’82), outgoing President of the State Bar Board of Governors Jennifer Rebholz, Executive Director of the State Bar of Arizona Joel England (’02) and Past President of the State Bar Board of Governors Alex Vakula. 

IN THE NEWS

Title IX turns 50 – a Q&A with law professor Tammi Walker

UArizona News, featuring Tammi Walker


Arizona after Roe v. Wade

AZPM, featuring Barbara Atwood


Planned Parenthood stops abortions in Arizona after Supreme Court decision

AZPM, featuring Barbara Atwood


FAQ: Where abortion stands in Arizona after the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

KJZZ, featuring Barbara Atwood


Law schools are offering undergrad degrees in emerging legal education trend

Reuters, mention of University of Arizona Law and Marc Miller


Lake Mead nears dead pool status as water levels hit another historic low

NBC News, featuring Robert Glennon


What Does HIPAA Actually Do?

Science Friday, featuring Tara Sklar


When My Employer Provides My Mental Health App, How Much Data Do They Have Access To?

Mozilla Firefox, featuring Tara Sklar


Long-Term Care After COVID-19

The Regulatory Review, mention of Tara Sklar

Alumna Anna Maria Chavez (94) recently moderated a panel on Aging Well for All at the inaugural Innovations in Healthy Aging Summit in Washington, D.C., where Prof. Sklar served as Master of Ceremonies.

  

Twitter, @AnnaMariaChavez

Arizona Law addresses the broad range of legal and policy issues around the massive area of health. Many of our health law and policy efforts draw on the great strengths of the University of Arizona in healthcare, with two medical schools (in Tucson and Phoenix), the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, the College of Nursing, and the entire Arizona Health Sciences enterprise.


The many students – currently more than 300 – who come to the MLS degree and to obtain health certificates bring extraordinary work and life experience into the (mostly digital) classroom. Tenecia Jackson illustrates what has made the MLS courses and certificates of interest to so many people working in a range of health and compliance settings. 


Tara Sklar has been a leader in building on these UofA partnerships, and in partnerships with non-profits and organizations spanning the vast range of healthcare law, policy and services. Our Health Law & Policy Program has nearly 200 students across four Certificate tracks and 70 graduates, including our exceptional alumna, Tenecia Jackson.  

 

Our distinctive i4J work on the Medical Debt Policy Scorecard illustrates the breadth of the work being done, in classrooms, scholarship, and policy, around issues of health.

Warmly,

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