Despite the high level of attention on health care discrimination during the debate over the Civil Rights Act of 1964, health care as a civil right has received relatively little attention since enactment. By examining the potential for using civil rights law to address disparities in access to care and health outcomes, the investigators will create a new framework for applying Title VI of the Act to today's health care system. The project addresses major policy questions in relation to Title VI enforcement efforts at a time when health care services have been transformed and dominated by integrated delivery systems. Professors Rosenbaum and Teitelbaum will evaluate the need to modernize the legal structure of Title VI to account for delivery system changes. Their work will provide policymakers with a clearer picture of health care discrimination, remedies for discriminatory practices, and legal principles on which the duty not to discriminate should rest.

Joel Teitelbaum is associate professor and vice chair of the department of health policy and managing director of the Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program at the School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University Medical Center. His research interests include civil rights issues in health care, health care financing and delivery systems, and quality-of-care issues. Professor Teitelbaum serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for the Study of Race and Bioethics at DePaul University College of Law, and as a faculty mentor to Project HEALTH, a national student organization addressing socioeconomic, medical, and environmental causes of poor health in low-income children.