Brietta R. Clark

Brietta R. Clark, Professor of Law and J. Rex Dibble Fellow

• Health Law Survey
• Health Care Access Seminar
• Reproductive Justice
• Bioethics and the Law
• Torts

Links

• CV

Education

• BA, University of Chicago
• JD, University of Southern California, Order of the Coif

Background

Professor Clark is an expert on health care law and inequality.  Her research focuses on the structural defects and biases that create inequity in our health care delivery and financing systems, and the role that law and government regulators play in ensuring equitable access to health care resources.  She has special expertise in the impact of Obamacare on Medicaid and private insurance access, reproductive and sexual health barriers, mental health care, and hospital closings in low-income neighborhoods.  Clark is an affiliate faculty member of The Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University, and provides active service to numerous legal, medical and consumer-based organizations and providers.  

Prior to joining Loyola in 2001, Clark worked in the Los Angeles office of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, specializing in health care transactions and regulatory compliance.  She was a post-graduate Fellow at the University of Southern California Law School. 

Public Service

• Testimony on “Health Care Inequity & COVID-19 Disparities” before the Delaware State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights (Oct. 12, 2021).
• Amicus Curiae Brief of Health Law Scholars, King v. Christie (3d Cir. Mar. 6, 2014) (Case No. 13-5038).
• Amicus Curiae Brief of Health Law Scholars, Pickup v. Brown and Welch v. Brown (9th Cir. Feb. 6, 2013) (Case Nos. 12-17681, 13-15023).
• Consultation with various legal organizations on health care regulatory matters such as hospital mergers, discriminatory coverage exclusions, and network adequacy in health plans.
• American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Board Member, Jan. 2021 – present, Member of the Health Law Scholars Nominating Committee, Jan. 2021 – present.
• LACMA-LACBA Joint Committee on Biomedical Ethics (January 2006-2012); Served on the writing committee for pain management guidelines (Avoiding Problems With Pain Management:  Ethical and Legal Guidelines for Physicians, 2012).
• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Committee on Clinical Investigations (2007 - 2008)
• Law School Admissions Council - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Issues Subcommittee (Chair, 2007 - 2009; Member, 2005 - 2007); Services and Programs Committee (Member, October 2003 - 2005)
• California Hospital Medical Center, Institutional Review Board (2001 - 2006)
• Health Law Section Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (2003 - 2010, past Chair)
• American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Board Member & Member of Medical Legal Rights Committee (2006-2011)
• HIV & AIDS Legal Services Alliance, Board Member & Member of Medical-Legal Partnership Advisory Committee (2007-2011) 

Recent Commentaries

• Enough is enough: The coverage provision is still constitutional and the court should reject this latest pretext for attacking the ACA, SCOTUSblog (Nov. 6, 2020), https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/symposium-enough-is-enough-the-coverage-provision-is-stillconstitutional-and-the-court-should-reject-this-latest-pretext-for-attacking-the-aca/
• A Critical Race Perspective on Social Risk Targeting in the Health Care Sector, Online Symposium: Understanding the Role of Race in Health, Bill of Health, Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, (Oct. 20, 2020), https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/20/a-critical-race-perspective-on-social-risk-targeting-in-the-health-care-sector/#more-29370.

Selected Scholarship

• Health Law: Cases, Materials, & Problems, Ninth Edition, with Erin C. Fuse Brown, Robert Gatter, Elizabeth Y. McCuskey, and Elizabeth Pendo (West Publishing, forthcoming 2022).
• Commentary on Rewritten Opinion, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Health Law Options. (Seema Mohapatra and Lindsay F. Wiley, eds.) (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2022).
• Structural Racism in Historical & Modern U.S. Health Policy, with Ruqaiijah Yearby and Jose Francisco Figueroa, Health Affairs (forthcoming 2022).
• Centering Black Pregnancy: A Response to Medical Paternalism, Stillbirth, & Blindsided Mothers, 106 Iowa L. Rev. Online 85 (2021)
• Sex-Based Discrimination in Health Care Under Section 1557: The New Final Rule and Supreme Court Developments, with Elizabeth Pendo and Gabriella Garbero, 33(1) The Health Lawyer (Oct. 2020), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/health_law/publications/health_lawyer_home/2020-october/sex-bas/.
• Health Law: Cases, Materials, & Problems, Eighth Edition, with B.L. Furrow, T.L. Greaney, S.H. Johnson, T.S. Jost, R.L. Schwartz, E.C. Fuse Brown, R. Gatter, J.S. King, and E. Pendo (West Publishing, 2018) (with 2019 & 2020 updates to casebook website).
• Medicaid Access & State Flexibility: Negotiating Federalism, Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy (2017).
• Teaching Health Law: A Journey Through the Health Care Safety Net, 61 Saint Louis University Law Journal 437 (2017).
• Getting People to Make the Right Choice Under the ACA: The Most Important “Sales Pitch” of Obama’s Presidency, 17 University of Maryland Journal of Health Care Law & Policy 3 (2014).
• APA Deference After Independence Living Center: Why Informal Adjudicatory Action Needs a Hard Look, 102 Kentucky Law Journal 211 (2013-14).
• A Moral Mandate & the Meaning of Choice:  Conceiving the Affordable Care Act After NFIB, 6 Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy 267 (2013).
• Safeguarding Federalism by Saving Health Reform: Implications of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 46 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 541 (2013).
• Medicaid Access, Rate Setting, and Payment Suits:  How the Obama Administration is Undermining Its own Health Reform Goals, 55 Howard Law Journal 771 (2012).
• Using Law to Fight a Silent Epidemic:  The Role of Health Literacy in Health Care Access, Quality, & Cost, 20 Annals of Health Law 253 (2011)
• An Assessment of the Law School Climate for GLBT Students, 58 Journal of Legal Education 214 (June 2008) (with Kelly Strader, Robin Ingli, Elizabeth Kransberger, Lawrence Levine, and William Perez)
• The Immigrant Health Care Narrative and What it Tells Us About the U.S. Health Care System, 17 Annals of Health Law 229 (2008)
• Hospital Flight from Minority Communities: How Our Existing Civil Rights Framework Fosters Racial Inequality in Healthcare, 9 DePaul Journal of Health Care Law 1023 (2006)
• Erickson v. Bartell Drug Co.: A Roadmap for Gender Equality in Reproductive Health Care or an Empty Promise? 23 University of Minnesota Journal of Law and Inequality 299 (2005)
• The Continuing Battle for Gender Equality in Reproductive Health, Loyola Lawyer (Fall 2004)
• When Free Exercise Exemptions Undermine Religious Liberty and the Liberty of Conscience: A Case Study of The Catholic Hospital Conflict, 82 Oregon Law Review 625 (2003)
• Making Sense of Managed Care Quality Information," National Health Law Program, Inc. & Center for Health Care Rights (November 1998) (contributing author) 

In the News

• "Demanding Equality in Health Care Reform" American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics (aslme.org) (Nov. 23, 2009)
• "Clever, Unconstitutional Way to Curb Abortions," San Francisco Chronicle, (sfgate.com) (with Karl Manheim, Nov. 13, 2009)
• "The Missing Piece of Healthcare Reform," Los Angeles Daily Journal (Oct. 23, 2009)
• "A Painful Lesson," Los Angeles Daily Journal (July 22, 2009)
• "What a Difference a Name Makes," Los Angeles Daily Journal (April 29, 2009)
• "Nonsense for Nonprofits," Los Angeles Daily Journal (Feb. 18, 2009)
• "Insurance Doesn't Equal Access," Los Angeles Daily Journal (Nov. 5, 2008)
• "Rapidly Fraying Safety Net," Los Angeles Daily Journal (Sept. 10, 2008)
• "Rescissions: A Scary Epidemic," Los Angeles Daily Journal (June 18, 2008)
• South Carolina's Ultrasound Bill is Unconstitutional and Unethical (April 20, 2007)
• Bush's Plan is Not the Answer, bioethicsforum. com (Feb. 2007)
• The Hidden Costs of a Cruel and Unusual Prison Health Care System, bioethicsforum.com (Sept. 2006)