Master of Legal Studies With a Concentration in Health Law
Northeastern University School of Law’s online Master of Legal Studies (MLS) offers an optional concentration in Health Law, which is tailored to professionals seeking to deepen their understanding of the legal aspects of healthcare. This rigorous online program is flexibly designed, with asynchronous coursework that meets the needs of working professionals.
The Health Law concentration provides an introduction to the legal regulations and compliance concerns governing the healthcare sector. Students will infuse their MLS coursework with valuable insights on topics such as healthcare financing, insurance access, institutional responsibilities and cost containment policy. The concentration curriculum also delves into specific statutes and regulations, including the Patient Protection Act and Affordable Care Act. This concentration equips you with the knowledge necessary to navigate legal issues within the complex and evolving healthcare landscape.
These are some roles our graduates might choose to pursue:
- Health services manager
- Compliance director
- Hospital administrator
- Clinical administrator
- Pharmaceutical executive
What You’ll Learn How To Do:
- Navigate the intricacies of healthcare regulations and policies
- Understand and ensure compliance in healthcare settings
- Manage and protect patient records with an emphasis on privacy and security
Why Choose Northeastern Law’s Online MLS?
Flexibility: With 100% online coursework and optional live Zoom sessions to connect with faculty and peers, this program is designed to fit the lives of busy professionals. You’ll be able to balance your career obligations with pursuing your educational goals.
Distinguished Faculty: Learn from a mix of esteemed law school faculty and industry experts who bring a wealth of knowledge and real-life experiences to the classroom. Their diverse backgrounds enrich the learning experience, providing insights into the practical application of legal concepts.
Real-World Learning: Northeastern University and the School of Law are leaders in practical, hands-on learning. The program emphasizes real-world scenarios and case studies, ensuring that what you learn is directly applicable to your career.
Automatic Scholarship Consideration: At Northeastern Law, our students are automatically considered for merit-based tuition scholarships.
Global Recognition: U.S. News & World Report recognizes Northeastern University as one of the top 10 Most Innovative Schools in the country, and the law school received the A+ ranking for practical training by The National Jurist/preLaw.
Whether you’re looking to improve your proficiency in legal regulations in healthcare, aiming for a leadership role or seeking to ensure your organization is compliant with healthcare laws, the Health Law concentration at Northeastern Law equips you with the necessary skills and knowledge to make a difference in your organization.
Connect with an admissions counselor today to learn more about our program and concentration offerings.
Foundation Courses
This course will provide students with an introduction to the American legal system and legal reasoning. The course materials will cover rights and obligations created by contracts, fundamental principles of property law, accident law, the regulation of criminal conduct, and the laws associated with business formation and relationships. Students will also complete writing exercises to enable them to synthesize their understanding, and to find and use legal sources in support of their work.
This course builds on Introduction to Legal Studies and its emphasis on common law by introducing students to statutes and regulations. The setting involves federal administrative agencies governing employment, consumer protection, environment, labor, cyberlaw, intellectual property, and international trade. Exercises and discussions require finding, summarizing, applying, and arguing about the applicability of statutes and regulations in concrete situations. The capstone of the course allows students to create a project to illustrate the lessons they learned in the course.
Core Courses
Students are required to take four of the six following course offerings, but are welcome to take more.
This course will present a comprehensive survey of procedural and evidentiary rules in the context of recordkeeping, document production, due diligence, and investigations. It will include an exploration of rights to privacy, issues of confidentiality and conflicts of interest, contractual and legal liability, evidentiary consequences in administrative and court settings resulting from workplace disputes, and other related areas.
This course will introduce students to the implications and impact of law on strategy, with attention to applying legal knowledge and resources to strategic planning and strategy implementation. The course will use several examples of readily understood strategies to provide opportunities for students to identify the legal environment, consider the legal rights and requirements implicated by relevant law or regulation (e.g., intellectual property, contracts, administrative law) and their potential impact on management, incorporating law as a resource on the resource based view of the firm. The range of examples will include considering law and strategy implementation in multiple contexts. The focus will be on developing an appreciation of the legal environment and making effective use of legal resources and lawyers as advisors in strategic management aimed at attaining sustainable competitive advantage over rivals.
Students will learn core elements of negotiations that are the precursors to any final agreement or resolutions of informal disputes: negotiation planning from opposing sides and counseling, analysis of the bargaining range and opponents needs, principled concession patterns, problem-solving strategies to avoid deadlock, information bargaining and authority clarification, principles of drafting, settlement, and ethics.
Institutions increasingly face a host of regulatory compliance issues. This course will cover the challenges facing organizations in building programs that ensure adherence with legal obligations, especially regarding data. We will explore statutes covering a broad range of areas, especially when it involves data protection and privacy.
Students will learn the rules governing organizations, including corporations, partnerships, governmental organizations, and nonprofits. The focus will include relationships within the organizations and the powers of members of organizations. In addition, the course will cover employment issues relevant to relationships in organizations. Topics will include rights of workers to be free of discrimination in the workplace, the importance of workplace rules, and policies governing the workplace.
Examines the legal framework for public policymaking at all levels of government. Topics include the role of law within the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government and the contributions of local, state and federal governments in crafting and implementing public policy. Explores the history of regulation and the rise of the administrative state. Reviews the landscape of current agency activities, including investigations and the imposition of sanctions. Introduces students to legislative and regulatory drafting processes. Offers students an opportunity to draft model legislation and participate in “notice and comment” rulemaking.
Courses in the Health Law Concentration
The Health Law concentration includes the following courses:
This course examines legal regulations governing the provision of healthcare services. Topics include access to health insurance and healthcare, healthcare financing, the organization and responsibility of healthcare institutions (especially hospitals), healthcare cost containment policies, public and private insurance programs, and the formulation of health policy. The course will also provide an introductory overview of the major statutes, regulations, and case law related to health law, including an introduction to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
The course covers major regulatory issues related to the healthcare field, providing in-depth regulatory overview of health programs. Statutory schemes covered will include HIPAA/HITECH, Stark/fraud and abuse. In addition, students will learn about compliance programs, including compliance operations, and the code of conduct for particular fields.
This course explores the ethical and legal obligations respecting patient records, particularly electronic records. In addition to reviewing HIPAA’s privacy and security rules, the course will cover professional ethics regarding confidentiality, common law and state protections for confidentiality, GINA, and the HITECH Act.
Online Master of Legal Studies
Get Started Now
Learn more about Northeastern Law’s online Master of Legal Studies program by filling out the form to download a free brochure. You can also call us toll-free at +1 877.375.9638 or at +1 617.655.6735 to talk with one of our admissions counselors.