The Best Schools and Programs For Health Care Law

Gavel-HealthcareHealth care is the largest industry in the United States, encompassing nearly a fifth of GDP. Sitting at the crossroads of science, technology, ethics, and economics, health care law governs the most profound questions involving fairness, innovation, privacy, and faith. Shaped by complex regulations – and buffeted by growing demand – health care law is becoming a magnet for law schools’ best-and-brightest.
If you’re a first year looking to work in health law, you’re probably asking yourself one question: “Where do I even start?” The options seem almost limitless: Medical malpractice, fraud and abuse, patient rights and privacy, contracts, and mergers and acquisitions…just to name a few. And clients can include anyone from hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies to physicians and patients.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the market for lawyers is expected to grow by 10% from 2012-2022. With The Affordable Care Act moving millions of Americans into health insurance, health law students will only see greater opportunities in the coming years.
Question is, which schools provide the best education in this field?  This year, US News and World Report released its annual rankings of law schools. Along with providing an overall ranking of schools, the magazine also measured schools in specialty industries, such as healthcare. Unlike its overall ranking, which weighs criteria like placement rates, LSAT scores, and assessments from law school deans, tenured faculty, lawyers and judges, US News calculates its specialty rankings strictly from votes submitted by legal scholars, with each voter able to nominate up to 15 schools. Based on the number of votes cast for particular schools, here is U.S. News’ 2014 ranking of the top 10 health law schools:

Rank School Annual Tuition (Full-Time) Enroll-ment LSAT (25th -75th Percentile) Acceptance Rate Bar Passage (First-Time) Median Private Sector Starting Salary Median Public Sector Starting Salary Post-Graduation Debt Employment After 9 Months (2011 Grads) Overall Rank
1 St. Louis University $36,885 709 151-159 59.0% 88.2% $52,500 $45,000 $121,742 67.6% 102
2 Boston University $44,168 740 162-167 30.5% 94.8% $132,500 $52,500 $110,437 57.5% 29
3 Georgia State University $15,154 (In-State) $34,834 (Out-of-State) 461 156-161 26.8% 94.2% $67,838 $54,268 $68,283 77.4% 64
4 University of Maryland $26,093 (In-State) $37,710 (Out-of-State) 711 151-164 26.6% 88.1% $64,000 $45,000 $122,349 62.3% 41
5 Case Western Reserve University $44,620 567 156-161 53.6% 81.8% $80,000 $52,065 $118,086 55.2% 68
6 Seton Hall University $48,170 604 154-161 51.9% 88.5% $135,000 $43,437 $125,745 72.0% 64
7 Loyola University $40,582 747 156-160 42.7% 88.8% $62,058 $33,900 $117,688 60.6% 76
8 University of Houston $29,748 (In-State) $39,699 (Out-of-State) 632 159-163 29.8% 92.0% $80,000 $58,000 $81,721 75.8% 48
9 Georgetown University $48,835 1683 165-170 28.4% 92.6% $160,000 $61,245 $146,169 71.1% 14
10 University of Indiana-Indianapolis N/A N/A 152-159 49.1% N/A N/A N/A N/A 63.1% 98

Source: U.S. News & World Report

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