<p>I've wanted to be a lawyer for some time now, and I've recently liked the idea of being a health care attorney. What does this field of law ential, what sort of issues would I be dealing with. Would I spend much time in a court room, or does it deal with administrative/corporate law? Thanks for any comments...</p>
<p>Healthcare law encompasses many activities and I doubt I could name them all. Some include representing medical providers (hospitals, nursing homes, doctors, etc.) You might serve as in-house counsel or outside counsel to a hospital and advise the hospital regarding general corporate matters such as zoning, real estate acquisitions and construction. You may also handle employment matters arising from hospital employees. You could address law suits against the hospital alleging malpractice although the actual litigation of these is often handled by lawyers retained by the insurance carrier of the hospital. Some hospitals have attorneys attempt debt collection but a lot use outside counsel or debt collection agencies. Medical providers often deal with patient records issues such as what information about patients can be disclosed and how it can be disclosed.</p>
<p>Medicaid is another area of healthcare law. Medicaid is medical expense coverage for the poor at hospitals. It also pays for elderly receiving long term care in nursing homes. There are a number of lawyers involved in helping families plan to avoid losing all of their assets while an elderly person goes on Medicaid. Sometimes this area of law is called Elderlaw since it focuses on the elderly. (Personally, I don't think highly of these lawyers but that is my opinion; many differ).</p>
<p>Social security law includes Medicare law and social security disability. I have not seen a whole lot of work done in Medicare law but I have seen a lot done in social security disability. There are a lot of truly disabled people and lazy people claiming to be disabled. The social security administration typially denies as many people as they can and then it is up to the Administrataive Law Judges in the social security administration process to aware benefits. Lawyers usually get paid a percentage of the amount received.</p>
<p>Some people include medical malpractice and personal injury under the heading of healthcare law, but those areas are probably distinct enough to be considered separate.</p>
<p>My comments probably do not fully reflect the opportunities available under healthcare law, but it's a start.</p>