Healthcare Law

There are links on this page to some sources of U.S. health law in federal statutes, and a link to the United States Code of Federal Regulations. In the left column, there is a selection of links to Oklahoma statutes and Oklahoma administrative regulations.

The appropriate state or federal agency can be a very good place to begin researching a health law issue. Links to relevant statutes, administrative rules, and agency decisions often can be found on agency websites, as well as information about what the agency does.

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the codification of the permanent regulations published in the Federal Register by executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. CFR titles related to health generally correspond to federal statutory titles covering the same topics. For example, Title 42 of the United States Code contains laws dealing with public health and Title 42 of the CFR contain regulations related to public health. 

If you are unsure of what federal regulations you may need to consult, you can use a subject index to the CFR, or a citator for statutes or cases you may be examining. Electronic databases and the finding aids index for the CFR in print have tables that cross-reference U.S. Code sections with applicable sections in the CFR.

• e-cfr - The CFR can be updated using ecfr.gov, print updates, or commercial services.
• Ask a librarian for help if needed or consult the Administrative Law Research Guide.

ACA regulations are available on the websites of three federal departments responsible for implementing various provisions of the ACA: Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); U.S. Department of Labor (DOL):

• Regulations and Guidance from the Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO)

  The Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), is part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). CCIIO oversees the implementation of the ACA provisions related to private health insurance and works with states to establish new Health Insurance Marketplaces.

• Affordable Care Act (ACA) Tax Provisions

  ACA tax provisions from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) affecting individuals, families, organizations and employers

• Regulations and Guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) (also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Obamacare) fundamentally changed healthcare coverage, insurance, and regulation in the United States. Due to the strong views in favor of and opposed to the ACA, it was enacted in an unorthodox and controversial process.  An important result of the process used to enact the law is that the ACA is not one single health care bill that became law, but is actually composed of two laws: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 STAT. 119) and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA) (Pub. L. No. 111-152, 124 Stat. 1029).  

The ACA was enacted on March 23, 2010. HCERA was enacted on March 30, 2010, to reconcile major differences between the Senate bill and the House version of the health care legislation. Prior to this law, Congressional Democrats had intended to have a conference committee merge the ACA with the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (H.R. 3962) that had passed the House of Representatives. Due to the election of Republican Scott Brown in a special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Republicans had the votes needed to filibuster a conference report on the House and Senate bills. Although HCERA significantly amends the ACA, because it is a budget reconciliation bill it could only be used to make budget amendments. However, it was legislatively expedient; and most importantly, a reconciliation bill can be passed with a simple majority and cannot be filibustered under Senate rules, which became the only way to pass it after Senator Brown’s election.

The ACA is divided into 10 titles and Title X significantly amends the other titles (requiring consolidation of the other titles with their Title X amendments). Thus, understanding the ACA requires knowledge about the amendments made by Title X of the ACA, the changes made by HCERA, and other subsequently enacted amendments.  The ACA, HCERA and summaries and commentary are available below:

• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Pub. L. No. 111-148, 124 STAT. 119)

  Enacted March 23, 2010. The ACA is divided into 10 titles and Title X significantly amends the other titles (requiring consolidation of the other titles with their Title X amendments)

• Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA) (Pub. L. No. 111-152, 124 Stat. 1029)

  Enacted on March 30, 2010, to reconcile major differences between the Senate bill and the House version of the health care legislation.

• Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962)

• The Affordable Care Act, Section by Section (Health Care U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)

  10 Titles of the Affordable Care Act, with amendments to the law enacted through the reconciliation process.

• Affordable Care Act: Section‐by‐Section Analysis with Changes Made by Title X and Reconciliation

  Parts of Title X of the Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act made changes to provisions in Titles I – IX of the Affordable Care Act. This section-by-section analysis includes a description of those provisions within the description of the section that was amended

• COMPILATION OF PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT As Amended Through Nov. 1, 2010 INCLUDING PPACA-RELATED PORTIONS OF THE HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2010

  Consolidation in the ACA of the amendments made by title X and HCERA

• A Legislative History of the Affordable Care Act: How Legislative Procedure Shapes Legislative History, John Cannan, 105 LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL 131 (2013)

  Comprehensive and detailed explanation of the passage of the ACA and its complicated legislative history

• ProQuest Congressional - Legislative Insight

  Available from the OU Libraries, Legislative Insight is one of the databases available from ProQuest Congressional. Legislative Insight is a federal legislative history database containing compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted U.S. public laws. Includes legislative histories for public laws from the 1st Congress (1789) to the current Congress.

GovTrack.us and Congress.Gov also provide legislative history for these two laws:

• History of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (GovTrack.us)

• History of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Congress.Gov)

• History of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (GovTrack.us)

• History of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Congress.Gov)