Health Law AOPs in 2025: Regulatory and Privacy Law Changes

The new administration in 2025 is looking to overhaul health regulations in the United States. It is expected to make health law a practice area growing in complexity and importance.

This is the best time to brush up on the fundamentals of U.S. health law and understand how it may change over the course of the year.

History of U.S. health law

The history of health law in the United States can be traced back to the first models of state health insurance, devised in the early 1920s. Over the ensuing decades, new laws impacting adequate medical care and creating federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act were introduced. 

These pieces of legislation only represent a part of the vast, evolving realm of health law. This field also overlaps with many other areas of legal practice. 

Important areas of health law

Health law is a collection of issues addressing how people access and pay for health care and how medical professionals are regulated. Here’s a nonexhaustive list of ways in which legal practice intersects with the healthcare sector.

• Accessing health care — Barriers to care can include income and geography. People might have trouble getting care if specialized services are unavailable or too expensive.
• Insurance coverage — Coverage might be limited for certain health services, leading people to pay out of pocket or not receive services at all. Insurers might also deny or dispute claims for covered services.
• Ethics of medical care — Patients, family members, and healthcare providers might all have different ideas about when to give or withhold treatment. There can be ethical debate about the treatment itself.
• Payment and licensing of professionals — Clinicians, nurses, and other healthcare team members are typically overseen by medical boards that ensure they are qualified to do this work. Some doctors might receive payment from various other sources, including drug companies, which might raise conflict of interest issues.
• Drug and medical device safety — Americans rely on regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to confirm the safety of medicines and medical devices, including those that stay inside the body as part of reparative surgery. 
• Disease treatment — People rely on doctors to recommend the best treatment for their condition, and unfounded, inappropriate, or inaccurate advice can be detrimental.
• Health information privacy — Strict Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations ensure the maintenance of privacy of medical records and other personal health information.

Role of health law attorneys

As the long list of health law issues suggests, health law attorneys have a broad range of roles. They represent clients in litigation surrounding regulatory, contractual, or professional obligations. They advise governments and regulatory authorities on policy. They also work with drug and medical device manufacturers on issues of patent protection and intellectual property. 

U.S. health law in 2025

Many of the prominent health law issues in 2025 might be driven by the new federal administration, which could make health law a growing area. The Trump administration has made a public commitment to vastly reduce the number of federal regulations across agencies. For example, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has also indicated his desire to change many health agencies, including the FDA.

Health lawyers have noted the complexity of advising clients in the new political environment. Lawyers will be required to help enforce and uphold the new law changes. In 2025, a potential major area of legal activity will be related to the changes in delivery of healthcare services, the federal funding of which was reduced or eliminated by the Trump administration through executive orders in the early days. 

The landscape of health and reproductive privacy is another emerging issue in 2025. It has become increasingly complex following the Dobbs decision in 2022.

Grow your practice with Martindale-Avvo

Health law can impact the work of lawyers practicing in a variety of areas, including personal injury, employment, and disability. As people face new levels of uncertainty in 2025, they will seek out legal help.

Work with Martindale-Avvo to elevate your marketing strategy and help clients who need you the most.