New in NEJM: DOJ's theory makes a doctor who prescribes off-label a drug "distributor." HHS claims power to exclude you from Medicare over a treatment decision. This doesn't stop at gender-affirming care — it reaches every off-label prescription. @benjaminabarsky.bsky.social doi.org/10.1056/NEJM...

Medical Standards by Federal Fiat | NEJM

The Trump administration’s legal theories about gender-affirming care, if accepted, could shift the equilibrium of medical decision making in the United States in important ways.

doi.org

Equivalent surgeries are reimbursed 34% less when performed on women. It is patently unconstitutional, and leads to lifelong patient injuries. We are getting some traction! CMS is accepting public comments on next year's payment rates. We built this to make it easy: surgicalparityproject.org

The Surgical Parity Project

Our healthcare system reimburses the same surgery up to 34% less when the patient is a woman. We're ending structural sex discrimination in surgical reimbursement — because equity means safer surgery.

surgicalparityproject.org

🍔 🕳️ Right to Try “has been mostly a nothing burger,” said Christopher Robertson. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Right to Try: Promise vs Reality in Cancer Care

Right to Try can allow certain patients with life-threatening conditions access to investigational treatments, but after almost 8 years, the pathway appears to be rarely used in oncology.

medscape.com

Are surgeries on women REALLY reimbursed at 30% lower rates than equivalent surgeries on men? Yep that's the conclusion of our new paper, and the discrimination impacts physician training and safety for patients. Check out the paper (& LMK if you need full text). journals.lww.com/greenjournal...

⚖️ Reimbursement Parity: How Sex-Based Valuations Harm Patients and Increase Costs — Join us for this Online Congressional Briefing. I'm speaking with phenom surgeons and patients. Come, and ask your Member of Congress to send a staffer to learn. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Here we go! AI prescribing drugs, without a human in the loop. Utah says now is the time. I'd like some standard data validation, but oh well. It will prolly work out fine. Check out my new @jama.com piece with Dan Aaron. If you need full text access LMK. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The First AI Drug Prescriber

This Viewpoint explores the entry of AI into clinical care, the role of the US Food and Drug Administration, and the associated legal, public health, and medical implications.

jamanetwork.com

HOW TO SAVE LIVES. $57B in opioid settlement funds are being distributed, but much on things like police drones and dance parties. In @jama.com, we argue for evidence-based abatement to save lives: Medication asst treatment, naloxone, and independent oversight. Read: doi.org/10.1001/jama...

The Lifesaving Potential of Opioid Abatement Funds

This Viewpoint explores how financial settlements related to the US opioid epidemic are being spent and how the funds could be used on potentially lifesaving interventions.

doi.org

In 2 weeks! CUPACon 2026 on current topics in expanded access, presented by NYU Working Group on Compassionate Use & Preapproval Access. Feat Richard Pazdur, Andrew Lo, @hollylynchez.bsky.social @profcrobertson.bsky.social, Alison Bateman-House, and others. Fantastic agenda, workshops, networking.

Millions of Americans are skipping cancer screenings because they don't know they cost $0 out-of-pocket. New study with Wendy Epstein proves that info works. We're looking for partners 🤝 & funders 💵 to scale up and save lives. 🚀 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

New essay with Wendy Epstein explains the life-or-death stakes in the debate about whether to extend Obamacare subsidies or shift Americans to big cost-exposures. For the full argument, also see my book, Exposed (2019, Harvard U Press). www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/o...

Professors: Here are the life-and-death stakes of the debate over Affordable Care Act subsidies

Access to comprehensive health coverage can determine whether people live or die.

chicagotribune.com

New @jama.com paper on governance of AI in hospitals. Important new guidance while we have no state or federal licensure of AI tools. But big burdens on small hospitals. With IG Cohen and S Palmieri of @petrieflomcenter.bsky.social LMK if you need full text. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

New Guidance on Responsible Use of AI

This Viewpoint discusses new guidance on responsible use of artificial intelligence.

jamanetwork.com

New paper out in @nejm.org explaining how First Amendment rights to religion can be used as a shield to protect public health interventions, such as safe-injection sites, against legal challenge. @benjaminabarsky.bsky.social +Caplan-Bricker LMK if you need full text. www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Save the date! Jan 23-24 BU is hosting the Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Working Group meeting, CUPACon 2026!

NYT says the shutdown is about "an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits." No, the enhanced credits were created in 2021 & extended in 2022 to go ABOVE the limits set by ACA. If/when these credits expire, we go back to ACA levels. Still, deadly. theconversation.com/health-insur...

Health insurance subsidy standoff pits affordable care for millions against federal budget constraints

Short-term renewals of policies such as the ACA subsidies set up repeated battles in Congress.

theconversation.com

Delighted to work with Jennifer Miller to comment on pharma using speakers bureaus. As we write, "In the US health care system, somebody must inform and educate clinicians about new treatments." Is pharma money the best we can do? Check it out. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The Ethics of Industry-Funded Speakers’ Bureaus

It is often said that a business without marketing is dead. But when a medical product is marketed irresponsibly, it is patients who may pay with their lives. In this context, Wieberdink et al1 examin...

jamanetwork.com

interesting that the Federal Judicial Center page on the contempt power seems to be down. www.fjc.gov/history/work... still available at Wayback though web.archive.org/web/20250607...

"Some innovation saves lives; some innovation kills people,” says Robertson. www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/13/1...

Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration

Leaders of the FDA have published a list of new priorities for the agency. They want to deliver rapidly-approved cures and "unleash AI."

technologyreview.com

This week (Apr29), I am co-convening a Congressional briefing on the huge disparities in payment for surgeries for women and how that leads to really bad outcomes -- lifelong pain, disabilities, and even death. You get what you pay for! You can help! ....

“Licensed professionals are not supposed to be following orders of non-licensed professionals when it comes to clinical care. ... That said [often] the relationships are so close that the corporate practice of medicine doctrine has basically been eviscerated.” www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20...

Eli Lilly opens a new legal front in its battle against compounded GLP-1s

Eli Lilly sued four telehealth firms, but it is adopting a new legal strategy in its fight against compounded GLP-1s.

statnews.com

Check out our new book, Health Law as Private Law. In addition to the amazing co-editors and authors -- too many to list here, I am particularly excited to have Alexander Calder on the cover. The book is open-access, so dig in! www.cambridge.org/core/books/h...

Health Law as Private Law

Cambridge Core - Medico-Legal, Bioethics and Health Law - Health Law as Private Law

cambridge.org

Check out the short podcast JAMA recorded with me to discuss the American Law Institute's new Restatement for medical liability. jamanetwork.com/learning/aud...

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice From the American Law Institute

In 2024, the American Law Institute revised the legal standard for assessing medical negligence. Author Christopher T. Robertson, JD, PhD, of Boston University School of Law joins JAMA Executive Editor Gregory Curfman, MD, to discuss these changes in the first-ever restatement of the law.

jamanetwork.com

The new restatement for medical liability moves towards evidence-based care. I'm quoted as saying, doctors "should not fear liability if they're just practicing good medicine. ... American doctors are probably too scared of liability..." www.medpagetoday.com/practicemana...

Legal Group Issues 'Restatement' of Medical Malpractice Law

More emphasis on use of evidence-based care and nationally recognized practice guidelines

medpagetoday.com

Our new special communication in @jama.com discussing the new restatement on medical liability. The new approach supports physicians who follow the science, rather than blind custom. If you need full text let me know. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice

This Special Communication discusses the changes introduced in the first-ever restatement of the law of medical malpractice by the American Law Institute.

jamanetwork.com

I spent several years working with the California State Bar to understand the racial disparities in the system of attorney discipline, and what we could do about it. Profs Fortney and Zirke have chronicled that work in a new piece: journals.library.wustl.edu/lawpolicy/ar...

Last week, I made a trip to Loyola Chicago to speak on GLP-1 drugs and off-label use, with vertically-integrated companies. Here is my part, but others include those by @nathancortez.bsky.social @govindpersad.bsky.social who spoke just before me. luc.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Page...

Beyond What We Can See: Evolving Compliance & Ethical Considerations in the Wake of the Weight Loss Medication Revolution

luc.hosted.panopto.com

New in ELJ: "Structural Sex Discrimination: Why Gynecology Patients Suffer Avoidable Injuries and What the Law Can Do About It" by @profcrobertson.bsky.social, Annabel Kupke, and Dr. Louise P. King. scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol74/is...

My new NEJM piece on the vaping litigation. One angle that I could only allude to is this: the SCt says that agencies should be subject to presidential control, but here 5thCir dings FDA for flip-flopping when presidency changed. Which is the rule? @medlawdan.bsky.social www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

E-Cigarettes at the Supreme Court — Potential Implications for the FDA and Public Health | NEJM

The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case about adolescent e-cigarette use and the FDA’s role in addressing it. A ruling against the FDA could have implications for its authority and for pub...

nejm.org

Check out the new podcast featuring our work on structural sex discrimination in gynecology. shows.acast.com/6666be8ab6f3... And the paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

In another peer-rev paper, we have replicated our landmark finding that JD-Next exam has predictive validity = to LSAT but without the huge racial disparities. Now 50+ law schools are using JD-Next to admit diverse classes of law students. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

If you're talking about suing a prosecutor without mentioning immunity, you might be missing something.