Justia Health Law Opinion Summaries

Under Part A of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) disburses funding to combat HIV/AIDS infection in metropolitan areas that are home to more than a specified number of individuals who have AIDS. When HHS determined that the Ponce metropolitan area no longer had enough AIDS cases to qualify for continued Part A funding, Ponce and several community health groups brought this lawsuit claiming that HHS had unfairly drawn the boundaries of Ponce’s metropolitan area too narrowly. The district court concluded that HHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously in defining the “metropolitan area” of Ponce and that HHS’s methodology for defining metropolitan areas in Puerto Rico was unfair and discriminatory. The First Circuit reversed, holding that Congress could reasonably be said to have told HHS to use the boundaries that it used in defining the Ponce metropolitan area. Remanded for entry of judgment in favor of Defendants dismissing the complaint with prejudice. View "Municipio Autonomo de Ponce v. U.S. Office of Mgmt." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint against Defendant, a medical doctor, alleging claims based on medical negligence, Defendant’s failure to obtain informed consent, and battery. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Defendant as to the medical battery claim. After a trial as to Plaintiffs’ informed consent claim, the jury returned a verdict for Defendant. The First Circuit affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part, holding (1) the district court properly dismissed Plaintiffs’ battery claim; but (2) the district court erred by excluding expert testimony that a fine-needle aspiration biopsy was a viable non-surgical alternative to a surgical biopsy. View "Bradley v. Sugarbaker" on Justia Law

Defendant, Plaintiff’s co-worker at a mental health facility in Norton, Massachusetts, issued an order, pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 123, 12, authorizing Plaintiff to be seized from her home and brought to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, certifying that there was a “very substantial risk” that Plaintiff would injure herself. Pursuant to that order, the police took Plaintiff from her home and drove her to the hospital. A doctor at the hospital determined that Plaintiff was lucid and released her. Plaintiff subsequently brought a 42 U.S.C. 1983 claim against Defendant. The district court dismissed Plaintiff’s claim for failure to state a claim that Defendant had violated Plaintiff’s federal constitutional rights. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that Plaintiff failed to state a plausible claim for relief. View "Durand v. Harpold" on Justia Law