LibGuides: Health Law Legal Research: Regulations and Agencies

Regulations

Federal regulations are first printed in the Federal Register (FR) and then codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), organized by topic. Both the FR and the CFR should be searched because new and updated regulations can take a few weeks to appear in the CFR. As well, the FR contains agency explanations for regulatory decisions and proposed rules that do not appear in the CFR.

Federal Register
This government website provides an easy to use version of the Federal Register. Each issue can be browsed and searched by type of notice, relevant agency, topic, and date. As well, the Unified Agendas for agencies can be browsed and searched. There is also a database of Executive Orders, and the site provides a lot of information explaining the rule-making process.
Regulations.gov
Regulations.gov allows you to access new Rules and Notices from the Federal Register, as well as to comment on Proposed Rules. It also includes the Regulatory Agendas of each Federal agency (the lists of regulations that they plan to make). It can be searched by keyword, title, or document ID number.
e-CFR
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e-CFR is an currently up-to-date version of the Code of Federal Regulations. It is updated daily with new rules from the Federal Register. However, it is not considered an official legal edition of the CFR (see govinfo below). It can be browsed by title as well as searched using the links on the left of the screen.
Federal Register and CFR - Health Related Title and Documents
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Contains a selection of CFR sections relevant to health care law: Title 15. Commerce and Foreign Trade, Title 20. Employee's Benefits, Title 21. Food and Drugs, Title 29. Labor, Title 42. Public Health, and Title 45. Public Welfare. Also contains Federal Register documents related to health law from 1980-present.
Federal Health Law - Federal Register (FHTH-FR)
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Documents from the Federal Register that relate to the provision of wellness services and regulation of health care institutions. Coverage begins with January 1981.
Federal Health Law - Code of Federal Regulations (FHTH-CFR)
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Documents from the Code of Federal Regulations that relate to the provision of wellness services and regulation of health care institutions.

Federal Health Care Related Agencies

US Department of Health & Human Services Organizational Chart
An interactive chart showing all the HHS departments and agencies.
Federal Trade Commission
Department of Justice
Employee Benefits Security Administration
Part of the Department of Labor.

Pennsylvania Regulations

Pennsylvania Bulletin
The Pennsylvania Bulletin is the state equivalent of the Federal Register, publishing new and proposed rules. It is available online, and each issue can be browsed or searched using a full-text search (can be narrowed by agency, date, document type, etc.)
Pennsylvania Code
Confusingly, the Pennsylvania Code is not the state statutes, it is the state regulations. All of them are available online through this website, and they can be browsed by title and searched using basic Boolean search strings.
Pennsylvania Code - Westlaw
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Pennsylvania Code - Lexis
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Pennsylvania Bulletin - Lexis
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Pennsylvania Health Care Related Agencies

More Research Help

For more information on how to research regulations and agency documents, see the following Libguides:

General Legal Research
by Lindsay Steussy Last Updated Jul 21, 2022 28 views this year
Pennsylvania Administrative Law Research
by David Haendler Last Updated Jan 12, 2024 752 views this year