Author

Christopher Robertson

  • End-of-Life

    New York Enacts Medical Aid in Dying

    New York is now the 14th U.S. jurisdiction to authorize Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), concluding a decade of legislative effort. 

    New York Enacts Medical Aid in Dying

  • FDA

    FDA Commissioner Rolls Back 40 Years of Orthodoxy on Cost-Exposure

    By Christopher Robertson Speaking yesterday at America’s Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP) National Health Policy Conference, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb railed against patient cost-exposure (e.g., copays).   His prepared speech said: Patients shouldn’t be penalized by their biology…

    FDA Commissioner Rolls Back 40 Years of Orthodoxy on Cost-Exposure

  • FDA

    “Right to Try” Does Not Help Patients

    By Christopher Robertson and Kelly McBride Folkers  In 2014, Arizonans overwhelmingly voted in favor of a ballot referendum that claimed to allow terminally ill patients the “right to try” experimental drugs that have not yet…

    “Right to Try” Does Not Help Patients

  • Health Care Finance

    Medical Bills are Open-Price Contracts: A Victory for the Little Guy

    By Christopher Robertson This blog has often covered the problem of outrageous medical bills, and explored whether patients have a responsibility to pay the balance on charges that are not covered by insurance.  One common…

    Medical Bills are Open-Price Contracts: A Victory for the Little Guy

  • Health Insurance & Coverage

    Special Deals for States?

    By Christopher R. Robertson Over at HuffPo, Craig Konnoth has a short-but-smart piece exploring the Constitutionality of the logrolling deals now underway to persuade Alaska Senator Lisa Murkoswki to support the latest effort to repeal…

    Special Deals for States?

  • FDA

    How the FDA Produces Knowledge (and Is Not So Weird)

    By Christopher Robertson The Federal government has wrested billions of dollars from the drug and device industry in settlements of claims that the companies broke the law by promoting their products “off-label” for uses not approved by…

    How the FDA Produces Knowledge (and Is Not So Weird)

  • First Amendment

    Is it legal for Trump to punish health insurers that do not support repeal of Obamacare?

    By Christopher Robertson In a recent story about how the health insurance marketplaces are being destabilized by the Trump administration’s vacillation, the LA Times reports: At one recent meeting, Seema Verma, whom Trump picked to…

    Is it legal for Trump to punish health insurers that do not support repeal of Obamacare?

  • Clinical Research

    Conflict of Interests Disclosures Come to PubMed

    By Christopher Robertson Scholars and policymakers have long been concerned that the biomedical science literature — and thus the practice of medicine — is biased by the companies who fund research on their own products.  Prior research…

    Conflict of Interests Disclosures Come to PubMed

  • Health Care Reform

    Another Way to Cut Medical Malpractice Damages?

    By Christopher Robertson To limit liability and increase predictability, scholars and policymakers have long focused on capping damages awards.  In particular, they have been worried that there are many runaway jury awards for non-economic damages…

    Another Way to Cut Medical Malpractice Damages?