Elizabeth McCuskey

Biography

Elizabeth McCuskey is Professor of Health Law Policy & Management at the BU School of Public Health and BU School of Law, and Assistant Director of the Center for Law, Ethics, & Human Rights. Her research focuses on how state and local governments pursue legal reforms that promote health equity – especially insurance and access to care – and how courts intervene in these relationships. She has worked on state and federal legislation and helps government task forces wrangle questions of preemption and design durable health reforms to withstand legal challenges in court.  Her recent work examines the role of employer-sponsored health insurance in access to reproductive care.

Professor McCuskey is co-author of the leading health law casebook, Health Law: Cases & Materials (9th ed. West 2022), and a contributing author to A Guide to Civil Procedure:  Integrating Critical Legal Perspectives (NYU Press 2022).  Her research on health reform and ERISA has appeared in prominent health policy publications, such as the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics and Health Affairs Forefront, as well as in the Columbia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, and the Temple Law Review.  She has also analyzed FDA preemption issues for SCOTUSBlog.  Her teaching covers Health Law, Public Health Law, Health Insurance & the ACA, Food & Drug Law, Health Care Antitrust, and Civil Procedure.

She comes to BU from UMass, where she developed the health law curriculum and taught a co-curricular immersion with the Center for Reproductive Rights. Before UMass, she led the JD/MPH and JD/MD joint degree programs and the Health Law program at the University of Toledo.  Before her academic career, Professor McCuskey practiced law with Drinker, Biddle, & Reath LLP, specializing in antitrust and appellate litigation for health care clients. In addition, she has served as a board member and advocate with Philadelphia Legal Assistance, a litigation assistant for Hale and Dorr LLP’s representation of Boston Scientific, an intern for then-Chief Judge David Faber on the US District Court for the S.D.W.V., and a member of Advisory Committee to the US District Court for the N.D.O.H.