Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

Barak D. Richman and Steven L. Schwarcz argue that healthcare providers played a central – and failing – role in stemming the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Analogizing to the financial crisis of 2008, they view our healthcare system as a collection of providers, each maximizing returns to its own stakeholders in a laissez-faire regulatory environment that ignored the essential interconnectedness of providers. Because neither hospitals nor regulators were attuned to this interconnectedness, our healthcare system was unprepared for the pandemic, resulting in a reduced standard of care. Just as Dodd-Frank and related legislation view financial institutions as part of a larger, interconnected system that must be regulated to minimize exposure to and build robustness against shocks, so too must federal regulators approach our healthcare providers as a “system” that can work as a collective to mitigate the
fallout from shocks.

Disciplines

Banking and Finance Law | Health Law and Policy | Law

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