One year to a functional understanding of the legal issues encountered in the healthcare industry.
With this concentration, MLS students will gain an increased aptitude for recognizing and appreciating policy issues and legal risks confronting the healthcare industry. The three courses described below supplement several other MLS courses in the regulatory and litigation arenas.
Among highly regulated industry in the U.S., healthcare is the largest and fastest-growing. That means there’s an increasing need for professionals who are better equipped to understand the industry’s governing laws and regulations. Moreover, the role and importance of healthcare in our society is pervasive: We are all impacted by it, either personally or on behalf of a loved one.
Individuals in the healthcare industry who successfully complete this concentration will be able to apply course learning outcomes in their day-to-day decision-making to better perform their jobs and ultimately improve organizational quality and the quality of patient care, safety, and advocacy.
What careers can benefit from the MLS healthcare law concentration?
The healthcare law concentration is ideal for those who want to gain a holistic operational understanding of the governing laws, regulations, policies and legal risks within healthcare, including:
- Clinical practitioners
- Nurses and nurse practitioners
- Medical assistants
- Dieticians
- Social workers
- Hospital and clinic administrators
- Compliance officers
- HR managers
- Patient advocates
- Billing and coding specialists
- Marketers
Courses taught by industry specialists
Courses will cover health law, healthcare regulation, and fraud and abuse. Learning outcomes include:
- The ability to recognize financial relationships and arrangements that implicate federal regulatory risk.
- A level of fluency in the principles and language of the law that will facilitate working more effectively with legal counsel.
- An understanding of the complex and nuanced relationship between health care organizations and their provider staffs, including the legal structures of professional licensing and autonomy.
- An understanding of the complex regulatory structure and influence of payment models for health care services.
- A working knowledge of the structure and function of compliance programs in health care organizations.
Career opportunities
Career opportunities may include:
- All health care entities
- Health insurers
- Government agencies
- Law firms (Licensed Paralegal Practitioner)
- Policy think tanks
- Academic institutions
Healthcare law concentration courses
This introductory course for non-lawyers will equip students with a basic understanding of the complexities of healthcare and health policy in the U.S. today.
Course Instructor: Leslie Francis, JD, PhD, is Distinguished Alfred C. Emery Professor of Law and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah, where she is also appointed as an adjunct faculty member in Internal Medicine, Public Health, and Political Science. Professor Francis specializes in health law, disability law, and bioethics. She is the author of many books and articles, including, most recently, States of Health: the Ethics and Consequences of Policy Variation in a Federal System (with John Francis; Oxford University Press, 2024).
This course will provide students with an appreciation for administrative law in healthcare and the complexity and nuance in complying with applicable federal regulatory structures by understanding historical, theoretical and policy themes in healthcare regulations intended to protect the financial integrity of federal healthcare programs.
Course Instructor: Robert R. Harrison earned a Master of Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated with his JD from the Saint Louis University School of Law with an Honors Certificate in Health Law. He was a fellow in health law and policy at Loyola University Chicago, earning a Master of Laws in Health Law with a concentration in regulatory compliance, and subsequently earned a doctorate in bioethics, also from Loyola University Chicago. He is a past national chair of the Health Law Section of the Federal Bar Association, a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and a fellow of the American Academy of Legal Medicine.
This course will provide students the ability to obtain the knowledge and tools necessary in understanding practical aspects of developing, growing, and operating an effective and ethical compliance program for healthcare organizations.
Course Instructor: Brent Wilson is chief compliance officer at University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. Brent earned his JD from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon in 2002, and began his law career as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Wayne L. Kidwell at the Idaho Supreme Court. After clerking, Brent worked in private law practice in Boise, Idaho until 2012, when he shifted to a health care compliance role, first as compliance and risk manager for the Elks Rehabilitation System and then as director of integrity and compliance at Saint Alphonsus Health System in Boise. In early 2019, Brent began his current role at University of Utah Health.