R. Gregory Cochran

Biography

(Please contact me at cochrang@uchastings.edu, rather than using expertfile. Thanks!)

Professor Cochran serves as Lecturer in Law on the UC Hastings faculty and as a member of the UC San Francisco/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy, serving as Associate Director of the Consortium’s Health Policy & Law Degree Program (HPL). The HPL is a Master of Science degree program that brings together students and faculty from a variety of legal and healthcare disciplines to create a dynamic learning environment in which students learn to critically assess legal, policy and social challenges affecting the U.S. health care system. HPL students gain access to a wealth of knowledge and experience from outstanding health and law school faculties and their respective networks of health law and policy experts.

Professor Cochran’s teaching and curriculum development experience are informed by his early career experience as an emergency medicine physician, followed by fifteen years of experience as a health care attorney in private practice. He brings to the HPL and to the College a unique perspective to share with students on the legal issues impacting all segments of the healthcare industry, including providers, payors and patients.

Professor Cochran’s broad practice experience includes advising hospitals, health systems, foundations, health plans, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, medical groups and physicians on a range of transactional, regulatory and administrative law issues. He has advised and lectured on regulatory compliance matters pertinent to such facilities on topics ranging from peer review, facility licensing, Medicare certification and Joint Commission accreditation to HIPAA and other health information privacy laws, tele-health, medical tourism, fraud and abuse and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). Professor Cochran's expertise also includes advising hospitals and health systems on overcoming the challenges in integrating and aligning with physicians and health plans, given the challenges presented by the the corporate practice of medicine doctrine and the Knox-Keene Act.

Professor Cochran currently lives in South San Francisco with his husband, William. In his free time, he enjoys sailing, yoga, watching baseball, traveling and reading about all aspects of spirituality and cosmology.

(Please contact me at cochrang@uchastings.edu, rather than using expertfile. Thanks!)

Social Media

Areas of Expertise (11)

Health Care Fraud and Abuse

Health Facility Licensing

Peer Review

Health Information Privacy

Patient Consent

Laws Unique to Ambulatory Surgery

Corporate Practice of Medicine

Health Care Reform

EMTALA

Telehealth

Joint Commission Accreditation

Accomplishments (1)

American College of Legal Medicine (professional)

Fellow

Education (3)

University of Pennsylvania Law School: J.D., Law 2000

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Order of the Coif; Editor and Senior Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Georgetown University School of Medicine: M.D., Medicine 1987

Washington, DC

Emory University: B.A., Anthropology 1983

Atlanta, Georgia Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude

Affiliations (6)

• Bar Admission : California
• American Health Lawyers Association : Member
• American College of Legal Medicine : Member
• California Society for Healthcare Attorneys: Member and Director
• American Bar Association: Member
• LGBT Bar Association: Member

Selected Articles (2)

Is the Shrink's Role Shrinking? The Ambiguity of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12.2 concerning Government Psychiatric Testimony in Negativing Cases

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

1999 Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12.2 requires a defendant to notify the government and the court if she intends either to rely on a full-fledged insanity defense or simply to use expert testimony about her mental condition as it relates to the issue of...

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Canadian Medical Tourism: Expanding Opportunities and Reducing Legal Risks for American Healthcare Providers

57 Jurimetrics J. 211–237 (2017)

R. Gregory Cochran and Alicia Corbett

2017-07-24

This article proposes a lower risk structure for American physician groups and hospitals to implement when establishing medical tourism services for Canadians. The article analyzes the various applicable laws, most of which pertain to fraud and abuse and physician self-referrals. The authors suggest that the venture be lower-risk and provide high quality services if a Canadian medical group practice is both the referring entity and arranger of the travel services, thus by-passing traditional "lay" medical tourism brokers.

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Courses (4)

The US Healthcare System and the Law

This foundational courses for the HPL program gives students an overview of the American healthcare system, including its structure, how it is financed and how it is regulated, with a focus on what factors promote or hinder the provision of quality medical care, and what barriers exist to accessing care in the United States. Students explore the tension from a legal and policy perspective of attempting to accomplish the ever elusive goal of improving quality and access to healthcare, while stabilizing and reducing costs.

Provider - Patient Relationships

This course examines the distinct category of health law pertaining to: --Quality control through individual and institutional licensing and accreditation, --Individual and institutional tort liability (primarily through medical malpractice), --Informed consent law, --Federal and state law of health informational privacy, --Health care financing through traditional insurance, the private market, and the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act, --Health care financing through government programs, --Contracting and employment issues in the health care industry, --Fraud and abuse regulation, --The application of antitrust law in a quickly consolidating industry, --Public health and --The fundamentals of bioethics.

Institutional Regulation and Compliance

This HPL course will focus on the legal and regulatory landscape and challenges faced by institutional healthcare providers, including hospitals, health systems, clinics, foundations and surgery centers.

Healthcare Reform

This HPL course will provide an in-depth review and analysis of the Affordable Care Act and other aspects of healthcare reform as they arose and progressed in the federal and state systems during the Obama Administration, including up-to-date information about the current status of reform.