Emerging Issues in Health Care Regulation: Protecting Patients or Punishing Providers

Michele L. Mekel, Southern Illinois University School of Law

Abstract

No credible claim can assuage the assertion that medical errors beleaguer the health care industry and pose grave danger to patients. As with any issue that impacts both a significant segment of the population and a sizable component of the economy, the government has a vested interest. To that end, governmental forces, both state and federal, increasingly have turned toward the enactment of quality of care and patient protection regulation. Yet, such a command-and-control solution, although comparatively easy to institute, may not provide the optimal resolution. In fact, such top-down regulatory responses to health care quality and patient safety concerns may impose a number of deleterious effects, including increased health care costs, unanticipated conflicts with pre-existing regulation, and erosion of provider self-governance and innovative initiative, among others.