- Safe Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime
Yale Law School, Law & Economics Working Paper No. 237
John R. Lott Jr. and John E. Whitley , State University of New York - Department of Economics and University of Adelaide - School of Economics
Date Posted: May 22, 2000
Last Revised: June 10, 2002
Working Paper Series
9111 downloads - Abortion and Crime: Unwanted Children and Out-of-Wedlock Births
Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 254
John R. Lott Jr. and John E. Whitley , State University of New York - Department of Economics and University of Adelaide - School of Economics
Date Posted: May 16, 2001
Last Revised: June 5, 2001
Working Paper Series
6030 downloads - Stability, Not Crisis: Medical Malpractice Claim Outcomes in Texas, 1988-2002
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Vol. 2, pp. 207-259, 2005, Columbia Law and Economics Working Paper No. 287, U Illinois Law & Economics Research Paper No. LE05-002, U of Texas law, Law and Econ Research Paper No. 030
Bernard S. Black , Charles Silver , David A. Hyman and William M. Sage University of Texas at Austin - School of Law , University of Texas at Austin , University of Illinois College of Law and University of Texas at Austin
Date Posted: October 25, 2005
Last Revised: March 19, 2007
Accepted Paper Series
1682 downloads - Abortion and Original Meaning
Yale Law School, Public Law Working Paper No. 119
Jack M. Balkin , Yale University - Law School
Date Posted: August 21, 2006
Last Revised: October 2, 2006
Working Paper Series
1485 downloads - What the Publisher Can Teach the Patient: Intellectual Property and Privacy in an Era of Trusted Privication
Stanford Law Review, Vol. 52
Jonathan Zittrain , University of Oxford - Oxford Internet Institute
Date Posted: March 9, 2000
Last Revised: March 26, 2007
Accepted Paper Series
1300 downloads - TRIPs, Pharmaceuticals, Developing Countries, and the Doha 'Solution'
U Chicago Law & Economics, Olin Working Paper No. 140
Alan O. Sykes , Stanford Law School
Date Posted: February 19, 2002
Last Revised: March 7, 2002
Working Paper Series
1250 downloads - Unintended Consequences of Medical Malpractice Damages Caps
NYU Law Review, Vol. 80, pp. 391-512, May 2005
Catherine M. Sharkey , Columbia University - Columbia Law School
Date Posted: February 17, 2005
Last Revised: June 1, 2005
Accepted Paper Series
971 downloads - Bayh-Dole Reform and the Progress of Biomedicine
Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 66, No. 1
Arti K. Rai and Rebecca S. Eisenberg , Duke University School of Law and University of Michigan Law School
Date Posted: November 23, 2002
Last Revised: February 6, 2003
Accepted Paper Series
901 downloads - Incentives in Nonprofit Organizations: Evidence from Hospitals
Simon School of Business Working Paper No. FR 00-02
James A. Brickley and R. Lawrence Van Horn , University of Rochester - Simon School and Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University
Date Posted: February 14, 2000
Last Revised: April 2, 2002
Working Paper Series
826 downloads - The TRIPS Agreement, Access to Medicines and the WTO Doha Ministerial Conference
FSU College of Law, Public Law Working Paper No. 36 and QUNO Occasional Paper No. 7
Frederick M. Abbott and Florida State University College of Law and Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago-Kent College of Law
Date Posted: October 8, 2001
Last Revised: October 15, 2001
Working Paper Series
744 downloads
Health care law (including regulatory and compliance issues, public health law, medical ethics, and life sciences), with digressions into constitutional law, statutory interpretation, poetry, and other things that matter
Sunday, June 03, 2007
SSRN: Top health law downloads
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Tubercular lawyer's world-wide travel raises public health questions
- "Why would a well-informed person aware of medical concerns get on an airplane after receiving a diagnosis of a disease that could be fatal to others?"
- "Why would he flee from health authorities once the diagnosis became even more grave?"
- "How could the man’s father-in-law, an expert in tuberculosis at the C.D.C., accede to the trip?"
- What does this saga tell us about the legal and practical gaps in our ability to limit the public's exposure to an infected individual, especially one with a motive -- whether benign or malicious -- to be evasive?
- How much freedom -- of movement, from surveillance -- will Americans tolerate in order to limit their exposure to infectious disease?
He said that when he was contacted by a representative of the Centers for Disease Control in Rome, he was told that he could not fly home unless he chartered a plane — at a cost of $100,000 — and that he should check into a local hospital. “I felt very abandoned,” he said, emphasizing that he firmly believed he could not infect others. He said he feared he might end up “stuck in an Italian hospital indefinitely, where I could die.”
“Short of a military state where you have 24/7 surveillance on someone, you have to count on the good will of the individual.
He called this a fact of life in an open society, one that could lead to major problems in an outbreak of pandemic influenza, in which many people would probably be boarding planes knowing they were sick to get away from an epidemic. “They would say, ‘I want to make sure I get out,’ ” whatever the risk to others. In that kind of situation, he said, the public health system would inevitably be unable to keep up.
There are a couple of AP stories today that add to what we know about Speaker:
- TB Lawyer Called 'Pillar' of Community photo
ATLANTA (AP) - The story of how Andrew Speaker met his future bride still draws laughs from his friends. The young attorney met Sarah Spence Cooksey, an aspiring lawyer, at an Atlanta pub and handed her his fancy business card. When she called, she asked for "Mr. Speaker." But the man she ended up... - TB Patient Faces 2 Months in Hospital photo
DENVER (AP) - The man quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis will likely spend up to two months in a hospital while he receives a battery of antibiotics and is evaluated for possible surgery, his doctors said. Andrew Speaker is the first infected person quarantined by the U.S....
- Man With TB Apologizes for Putting Others at Risk
Lawrence K. Altman and John Holusha (The New York Times, June 1, 2007)
"The Atlanta lawyer who flew on crowded airplanes while infected with a dangerous form of tuberculosis said today he did not think he presented a danger when he flew and he apologized to his fellow passengers." See also: TB Treatment a 'Challenge,' Doctor Says (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 1, 2007) - Agent at Border, Aware, Let In Man With TB
Lawrence K. Altman (The New York Times, June 1, 2007)
"The man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis who flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon was identified yesterday as a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer. Department of Homeland Security officials said he re-entered the country from Canada when a customs agent let him pass despite knowing that the man was being sought by health authorities." Free registration required. - Case of TB Traveler Reveals Holes in Global Disease Control
Elisabeth Rosenthal (International Herald Tribune, May 31, 2007)
"The U.S. health authorities failed to notify their Italian counterparts that an American tourist with an extremely dangerous form of tuberculosis was staying in a Rome hotel this month until he was leaving the country, Italian officials said Thursday. That time lapse allowed him to leave Rome and fly to Prague and Montreal, potentially exposing dozens of people to an often lethal germ." - TB Patient's Father-in-Law a CDC Microbiologist
(Associated Press, May 31, 2007)
"The honeymooner quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was identified Thursday as a 31-year-old Atlanta personal injury lawyer whose new father-in-law is a CDC microbiologist specializing in the spread of TB and other bacteria." - Near Misses Allowed Man With Tuberculosis to Fly
Lawrence K. Altman and John Schwartz (The New York Times, May 31, 2007)
"A series of 'understandable' near misses accounted for a Georgia man’s odyssey to Europe in which he might have exposed fellow passengers on a series of commercial flights to an exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis, federal officials said [Wednesday]." Free registration required. - Isolating an Evasive TB Patient
Editorial (The New York Times, May 31, 2007)
"Congressional oversight committees ought to examine whether health officials dropped the ball -- and what steps can be taken to ensure that patients infected with deadly contagious diseases protect others from infection." Free registration required. - Earlier:
CDC May 29 Media Relations Telebriefing Transcript
Atlantan Quarantined with Deadly TB Strain (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 30, 2007) Free registration required.
CDC Warns of Possible TB Exposure on Atlanta-Paris Flight (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 29, 2007) Free registration required.
Dr. Death out of prison
Dutch reality tv program -- "Big Donor Show" -- a hoax
It appears that organ-transplant officials the world over are a pretty conservative lot, adverse to publicity that could be seen as sensationalistic in any way, and of course there was plenty about this "show" not to like. But count this episode as one of many that illustrate the widespread feeling of frustration that "business as usual" isn't getting the job done in the organ-transplant field. The waiting-list statistics at UNOS tell a pretty grim tale:
- there are currently 96,047 registered patients on various waiting lists
- over the past 5 years, waiting-list registrations have skyrocketed for livers, kidneys, and lungs; the number of transplants has increased modestly, and the number of patients who died waiting for a transplant has either gone up modestly (livers and kidneys) or stayed about the same (lungs) despite heroic efforts to increase donations; for hearts, the number of deaths on the list has gone down slightly, but not because of an increase in the number of transplants, which has stayed about the same:
Historians of organ transplantation may well look back on 2007 as the year of the first big crack in the facade. I am thinking of HHS' opinion earlier this year that the prohibition against buying and selling organs (42 U.S.C. § 274e) would not be violated by paired exchanges of living donor kidney transplants. This is the situation when A donates a kidney to D in exchange for C's donation of a kidney to B, where A would otherwise be a living related donor to B, and C would otherwise be a living related donor to D, but for A-B and C-D incompatibility. (A variation on this theme occurs when a living related donor who is incompatible with a family member on the waiting list donates to a stranger, in exchange for which the patient on the waiting list receives some priority on the waiting list, which may substantially shorten his or her waiting time.) Every first-year Contracts student can spot the valuable consideration in these arrangements, but DOJ said the practice does not violate federal law. It can only be a matter of time before the supposed distinction between mutual promises (or the performance thereof) and the exchange of cash for a promise (or performance thereof) will crumble.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Health Lawyers News, June 1
Top Stories
CMS Implements New Marketing, Education Requirements For PFFS Plans
Abby L. Block Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) Center for Beneficiary Choices sent a memo May 29 to Medicare Advantage (MA) Private fee-for-service (PFFS) plans reminding them that CMS is requiring new outreach processes to ensure beneficiaries and providers are informed about the distinctive features of Medicare PFFS plans. Full StoryBaucus, Grassley Urge IRS To Update Reporting Forms For Nonprofits
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter May 25 to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging him to update Form 990 and Form 990 PF that nonprofits file with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to gain greater transparency into the workings of tax-exempt organizations including charities. Full StoryArticles & Analyses
- Unionized Hospital Denied Antitrust Exemption In Nurses’ Suit, by Mark A. Hutcheson, Douglas C. Ross, Mary E. Drobka, and Charles S. Wright, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP
Current Topics
- Criminal Law
D.C. Circuit Upholds Restitution Order Against Podiatrist Who Pled Guilty To Medicare Fraud- Fraud and Abuse
Sixteen Individuals Charged With Defrauding Medicare Of $101 Million In DME Billing Scheme- Update
- Healthcare Access
California Appeals Court Voids County’s Income Eligibility Cap For Subsistence Medical Care- Hospitals and Health Systems
1. Florida High Court Finds Hospital Has No Duty To Ensure Staff Physicians Have Malpractice Insurance
2. Florida Appeals Court Finds Hospital Owed No Duty of Care To Man Who Fainted After Viewing His Wife’s Emergency Treatment- Individual/Patient Rights
Second Circuit Finds Intended Organ Recipient Had No Property Right In Donated Kidney Because Of Incompatibility- Long Term Care
House Panel Investigating Deceptive Practices In Long Term Care Insurance Market- Medicaid
1. President Signs Supplemental War Spending Bill With SCHIP Funding And Moratorium On Medicaid Rule
2. CMS Issues Final Rule On State Medicaid Financing Arrangements
3. Ninth Circuit Upholds Oregon Plan Charging Individuals In Medicaid Expansion Group Higher Copays Than Other Medicaid Recipients- Medicare
1. CMS Proposes Non-Coverage Of LADR For Medicare Recipients Over 60
2. CMS Releases Measures For Evaluating Financial Health Of Suppliers Participating In New DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program
3. CMS Clarifies Policy Relating To Part D Special Transition Period For Retroactive Enrollment
4. GAO Finds Most Employers Continued Retiree Drug Coverage, Opted For
Subsidy- News in Brief
1. PhRMA Adds Drug Safety Information To Its Website
2. AHRQ Adds New Web Tool For Healthcare Quality Report Cards- Patient Safety
Baucus,Grassley Introduce Bill Directed At Improving Research On Pharmaceutical Safety And Effectiveness- Physicians
1. Tennessee High Court Holds Information Otherwise Available From Original Sources Is Discoverable But Not From Peer Review Committee
2. Ohio High Court Strikes Down Rule Barring Anesthesiologist Assistants From Performing Epidural And Spinal Procedures- Tax
Eleventh Circuit Holds Medical Residents May Qualify For FICA Exemption
Thursday, May 31, 2007
NIH creates and confers new AID research awards
A joint award to Robert Yarchoan, M.D. and Hiroaki Mitsuya, M.D., Ph.D. of the National Cancer Institute — for their individual and combined achievements, groundbreaking discoveries and innovative and original scientific contributions that have significantly advanced HIV treatment research. Their landmark clinical studies, demonstrating that AZT could result in partial restoration of the immune response and temporary clinical benefit, established the first treatment for HIV infection and launched the era of effective therapy for HIV/AIDS. Their work significantly advanced this field, directly impacting on the development of new and better strategies to prevent and treat HIV disease in this country and around the world.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
China's ex-regulator of food and drug gets death penalty
China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicines, as the country's main quality control agency announced its first recall system targeting unsafe food products.
The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods -- from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.
The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu for taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than $832,000 when he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The court then issued the death penalty, the report said.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Dutch reality tv: who will get my kidney?
Monday, May 28, 2007
Emergency research protocols expand
Saturday, March 31, 2007
California health reform
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Living with an incurable genetic disease
Fen-phen lawyers defrauded plaintiffs, court rules
There's more, and it's all ugly. Shameful.W. L. Carter knew there was something fishy going on when he went to his lawyers’ office a few years ago to pick up his settlement check for the heart damage he had sustained from taking the diet drug combination fen-phen.
The check was, for starters, much smaller than he had expected. And his own lawyers threatened to retaliate against him if he ever told anyone, including his family, how much he had been paid. “You will be fined $100,000, you will go to jail and you will be sued,” Mr. Carter recalled them saying.
Mr. Carter was right to have been suspicious. The lawyers defrauded their clients, a state judge has ruled in a civil case, when they settled fen-phen lawsuits on behalf of 440 of them for $200 million but kept the bulk of the money for themselves. Legal experts said the fraud might be one of the biggest and most brazen in legal history.
This week, several clients testified before a federal grand jury that has begun to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing arising from the settlement.
“It enrages me,” said Sonja Pickett, a retail manager, who testified Thursday before the grand jury. “They robbed us.”. . .
The basic facts are not in dispute. When the clients sued the drug maker, they agreed to pay the lawyers 30 percent to 33 percent of any money that was recovered, plus expenses. In this case, that would have left the 440 clients to divide perhaps $135 million.
But the clients received only $74 million. An additional $20 million went to a questionable “charitable fund.” The rest — $106 million — went to lawyers. Though amounts of the individual settlements remain sealed, court papers suggest they were from $100,000 to $5 million. On average, plaintiffs received less than 40 percent of what the settlement agreement specified, instead of the roughly 70 percent to which they were entitled.
Had the lawyers merely taken what they were contractually entitled to, they would have become very rich men, said Tracy Curtis, a mortgage loan officer who is also suing her former lawyers. “They could have taken the high road,” Ms. Curtis said. “They would have made plenty of money.”
Federal bill prohibiting genetic discrimination analyzed by Congressional Budget Office
- Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Public Health Service Act to expand the prohibition against discrimination by group health plans and health insurance issuers in the group and individual markets on the basis of genetic information or services to prohibit: (1) enrollment and premium discrimination based on information about a request for or receipt of genetic services; and (2) requiring genetic testing. Sets forth penalties for violations.
- Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prohibit issuers of Medicare supplemental policies from discriminating on the basis of genetic information.
- Extends medical privacy and confidentiality rules to the disclosure of genetic information.
- Makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, employment agency, labor organization, or training program to discriminate against an individual or deprive such individual of employment opportunities because of genetic information. Prohibits the collection and disclosure of genetic information, with certain exceptions.
- Establishes a Genetic Nondiscrimination Study Commission to review the developing science of genetics and advise Congress on the advisability of providing for a disparate impact cause of action under this Act.
For a more detailed discussion of the bill, go to H. Rept. 11-28 (Part I), March 5, 2007. Also, a number of states already have similar laws on their books. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a handy list of such laws (last updated Nov. 2006 (employment) and June 2005 (insurance)).
Yesterday, the CBO published its cost estimate for H.R. 493. Over 10 years, the federal treasury would be out about $2 million (because premiums for some of the new insureds would be tax-deductible) and the CBO estimates increased outlays of about $2 million (assuming appropriations are approved) for the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and HHS. There will be additional state and private-sector mandates in connection with the anti-discrimination law, but CBO figures the cost will be low for the states and below the threshold in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act for the private-sector actors.
If there's a surprise in any of this, it might be in the estimated number of citizens expected to benefit from this law: 600. Is there any chance this is a typo?
Thursday, March 22, 2007
NEW MEDICARE HOSPITAL CONDITIONS OF
PARTICIPATION FOR TRANSPLANT CENTERSThe Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule today setting forth the requirements that transplant centers must meet to participate in the Medicare program that moves Medicare covered transplant programs toward an outcome-focused system.
This final rule will move Medicare-covered transplant programs toward an outcome-focused system that reflects the clinical experience, resources and commitment of the transplant program. The rule contains comprehensive conditions of participation for transplant programs serving Medicare beneficiaries.
It will ensure effective oversight of transplant centers by advancing coordination between CMS, State survey agencies, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
“This is a major milestone in our efforts to make sure that people needing transplants get the best possible care, while giving transplant centers and physicians comprehensive and reliable guidance,” said Leslie V. Norwalk, CMS acting administrator. “This rule both improves the current transplant outcome measure requirements and strengthens the protection of the health and safety of patients and living donors.”
In recent decades, remarkable strides in transplantation technology and pharmacology have turned organ transplantation into a mainstream treatment for many patients in end stage organ failure. CMS issued coverage decisions related to heart transplants in 1987, liver transplants in 1991, lung transplants in 1995, and intestine transplants in 2001 and updated in 2006. Kidney transplant centers have been regulated in the Code of Federal Regulations since 1976. This rule will consolidate all transplant center requirements into one regulation.
All transplant centers that continue to participate in Medicare, including kidney transplant centers, are required to submit a request for initial approval. Once approved by Medicare, transplant centers are eligible for re-approval every 3 years.
Transplant centers with current Medicare approval, that have applied for initial approval within 180 days from the effective date of the final rule may continue to provide transplant services and receive payment from Medicare until CMS makes a decision on the transplant center’s request for approval.
The final rule went on public display today at the Office of the Federal Register for publication on Friday, March 23, 2007.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
IRS releases "Good Governance Practices" for charitable organizations
The IRS seems to be saying that adoption of these good governance practices is not a criterion for obtaining or retaining exempt status, but that an organization that departs to a significant degree from them is more likely to engage in practices that put its exempt status in jeopardy. Interestingly, if somewhat bizarrely, the Service inserted a comment about board size into its introduction that doesn't appear -- either implicitly or explicitly -- in the Good Governance Practices themselves. It's the trite-but-true "Goldilocks" principle that boards that are too small have difficulty representing "a public interest" and boards that are too large "may be less attentive to oversight duties." Presumably boards that are "just right" are more likely to see that their duties are carried out in a manner that promotes, in the case of exempt hospitals, community benefits.
Monday, March 05, 2007
GAO testimony on DOD/VA care problems for injured soldiers, vets
It may be true, as Paul Krugman writes in today's op-ed (paid TimesSelect subscription required) in the N.Y. Times, that the worst of the worst in terms of quality care (or the lack thereof) is in the military hospitals, which are separate and distinct from the VA. And the VA may still be the exemplar of quality that it's been touted to be for the past 10 years (although that's not what I hear from the medical students who rotate through the VA hospital here, and that's not the message from vets in today's Post article by Hull and Priest). But the testimony of the GAO witness documents some of the ways that the care in the VA system breaks down when a patient is handed off from the military's hospital system to the VA's.
To be middle-class and uninsured
The article offers a good illustration of the problems encountered by the uninsured.[T]he uninsured are not necessarily the poor, the unemployed and the undocumented. Solidly middle-class people like Ms. Readling are one of the fastest growing subgroups.
And that is one reason, according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, that the problems of the uninsured have jumped to the top of the domestic political agenda in Washington and on the campaign trail.
Today, more than one-third of the uninsured — 17 million of the nearly 47 million — have family incomes of $40,000 or more, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonpartisan organization. More than two-thirds of the uninsured are in households with at least one full-time worker.
Undertreatment and general mismanagement of chronic conditions will, in the long run, result in more expense, not less, but if short-term cash flow makes the cost of care prohibitively expensive, where's the safety net for patients like Ms. Readling? It doesn't exist.To save money, Ms. Readling said, she defers visits to the doctor and stretches out her cancer medication, which costs her about $300 a month. She takes the tiny pills three or four times a week, rather than seven days a week as prescribed.
“I really try to stay away from the doctor because I am so scared of what everything will cost,” said Ms. Readling, who is divorced and has twin 18-year-old sons. Before every doctor’s visit and test, she asks, “How much are you going to charge me?” She says she tries to arrange “the best deals I can.”
But in many cases, the price is still unaffordable, and “I have to do without.”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Washington state courts publish public health emergency bench book
NY Times article on the pervasive -- and perverse -- presence of IRBs on campus
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Second Champaign hospital loses its exempt status
The Board of Review's letter brief argued that the hospital was guilty of inurement by providing a practice platform for the for-profit physician group that operated it. Granted, this is the position of a single taxing authority (and maybe the state as well), but if that analysis is adopted widely, a lot of multi-specialty physician groups (at least the ones that aren't organized as nonprofits) with an affiliated health or hospital group are going to want to take a close look at whether they are organized and operated for a charitable purpose. Every entity's facts will be a little different, and exempt status is a "facts and circumstances" determination, but counsel for any such organization will want to pay close attention to the County's analysis of the inurement issue, as well as the other facts relied on in their brief.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Everything you always wanted to know about nanotechnology but were afraid to ask
If you're coming to the nanotech party a little late, a good place to start would be the federal government's National Nanotechnology Initiative:
The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a federal R&D program established to coordinate the multiagency efforts in nanoscale science, engineering, and technology.
The goals of the NNI are to:
- Maintain a world-class research and development program aimed at realizing the full potential of nanotechnology;
- Facilitate transfer of new technologies into products for economic growth, jobs, and other public benefit;
- Develop educational resources, a skilled workforce, and the supporting infrastructure and tools to advance nanotechnology; and,
- Support responsible development of nanotechnology
Twenty-five federal agencies participate in the Initiative, 13 of which have an R&D budget for nanotechnology. Other Federal organizations contribute with studies,
applications of the results from those agencies performing R&D, and other collaborations. (See NNI Participants and NNI Structure and Strategies)
Monday, February 12, 2007
Lethal injection: what does the physicians' non-role portend?
AHLA's Health Lawyers Weekly (Feb. 9)
Top Stories
- President Bush Issues FY 2008 Budget, Calls For Substantial Medicare, Medicaid Reductions
President Bush issued his fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget proposal this week, calling for roughly $101 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid over five years. Full Story - CMS Reports More Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Using Generic Drugs
New data indicates that many Americans are saving money by switching to generic drugs, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Full Story
Articles & Analyses
- Michigan Legislature Passes Provisional Nurse Licensure Statute, by Gregory W. Moore, Hall Render, Killian Heath and Lyman
Current Topics
- Arbitration/Mediation
Ohio Appeals Court Upholds Nursing Home Arbitration Agreement Finding Procedural But Not Substantive Unconscionability - Business Transactions
Seventh Circuit Holds Management Company Breached Lease Agreement When Intermediary Care Facility Lost State CON - ERISA
U.S. Court In Michigan Finds Plan Member Has Standing To Sue Under ERISA Even Without Proof Of Personal Injury - Food and Drug Law
Drug Safety Legislation Introduced In Senate - Fraud and Abuse
1. Update
2. U.S. Court In Arkansas Dismisses FCA Qui Tam Action Against Hospital And Rehabilitation Services Provider On Finding Of Insufficient Evidence - Health Policy
Major Employers, Union Team Up To Improve Healthcare System - Healthcare Access
Workers' Decision To Participate In Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Plans Affected By Affordability Of Premiums, Study Finds - HIPAA
U.S. Court In Connecticut Says HIPAA Does Not Bar Ex Parte Interviews With Employees At Group Home Where Plaintiff Was Allegedly Neglected - Hospitals and Health Systems
1. Texas Appeals Court Finds Hospital District Waived Its Immunity By Filing Counterclaim To Physicians' Retaliatory Discharge Claims
2. Lawmakers Question CMS About Specialty Hospital Following Patient Death In Texas - Insurance
U.S. Court In Texas Dismisses Hospital's Claims Against Plan Administrator After Plan Refused To Pay Because Of Pre-Existing Condition Exclusion - Medicaid
Study Finds Six States Have Reported Enrollment Drop Since Implementing New Medicaid Documentation Requirements - Medicare
1. OIG Presents Baseline Data On Medicare Part B Services For Nursing Home Residents
2. U.S. Court In Tennessee Rejects MSP Action By Individual Claiming Standing As Qui Tam Relator - News in Brief
Low Health Literacy May Lead To Unsafe Care, Joint Commission Says - Physicians
Ninth Circuit Allows Physician To Proceed With Retaliatory Termination, Unfair Competition Claims Against IPA - Quality of Care
1. Most Patients Do Not Comparison Shop For Healthcare Services, Study Finds
2. Public Reporting Efforts Help Improve Quality Of Care But Implementation Obstacles Remain, Report Says - Tax
IRS Issues Governance Guidelines For Charitable Organizations
(c) 2007, reprinted with permission of AHLA
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Texas' HPV vaccination mandate: upon further reflection . . . .
- Although you note the “opt out” approach taken by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas in which vaccination is required but parents can seek an exemption for reasons of conscience or religious beliefs, recommending the vaccine rather than requiring it could prove to be just as effective without violating the parents’ right to decide affirmatively — at least until the long-term effects are known. Amanda Styron
- Schools may rightfully require that children undergo immunizations that will protect schoolwide populations from acquiring communicable diseases, but cervical cancer does not fall into this category. However benevolent the intent, this is not a matter for Big Brother. Alan Katz
- In Texas, underscreening in African-American and Hispanic women probably accounts for their disproportionately high rates of cervical cancer. These adult women need access and coverage for screening. Unfortunately, there is no lobby for the Pap smear. Deborah Kamali, M.D.
- Compulsory vaccination has a legitimate place in our health care system. But why should the government restrict its vaccinations to the victims? Why not include the carriers? Sue Abercrombie
- Texas will pay hundreds of dollars per girl for the vaccination. Why not spend the money on health care, education about teenagers’ bodies and rights, enriching music, dance, art and science programs that engage, increase confidence and provide an alternative to sexual activity? What kind of people supply schoolgirls to a pharmaceutical company, allowing it to earn millions a year on such mandates? Elizabeth Beiter
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Hospice - rethought and revised
Monday, January 29, 2007
Does anyone know what John Kitzhaber's been up to since he stopped being governor of Oregon? The Archimedes Movement. Check it out.
Monday, January 15, 2007
AHLA's Health Lawyers Weekly (12 Jan 07)
Top Stories
- House Passes Bill Requiring Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation; Bush Threatens Veto
President George W. Bush has threatened to veto a bipartisan bill that would require the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare. The House passed the bill January 12 by a vote of 255 to 170. Full Story - House Clears Stem Cell Bill
As expected, the House passed January 11 a bill aimed at expanding research opportunities on embryonic stem cells. The measure cleared the House by a 253-174 margin, short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presedential veto. Full Story
Articles & Analyses
- Department Of Justice Revises Policies On Waiver Of The Attorney-Client Privilege In Corporate Fraud InvestigationsBy Joseph Burby, Jennifer Odom, and Kenneth Schwartz, Powell Goldstein LLP
. . . and many news items of note.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
GAO reports from November
- End-Stage Renal Disease: Bundling Medicare's Payment for drugs with Payment for All ESRD Services Would Promote Efficiency and Clinical Flexibility. GAO-07-77, November 13, 2006 (35 pages). http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-07-77
- End-Stage Renal Disease: Medicare Payments for All ESRD Services,Including Injectable Drugs, Should Be Bundled. GAO-07-266T,December 6, 2006 (5 pages). http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-07-266T
- Long-Term Care Insurance: Federal Program Has a Unique Profit Structure and Faced a Significant Marketing Challenge.GAO-07-202, December 29, 2006 (29 pages). http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-07-202
- New Drug Development: Science, Business, Regulatory, and Intellectual Property Issues Cited as Hampering Drug Development Efforts. GAO-07-49, November 17, 2006 (47
pages). http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-07-49 - Prescription Drugs: Improvements Needed in FDA's Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising. GAO-07-54, November 16, 2006 (47 pages). http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-07-54
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Health Affairs' 25 most-read articles of 2006
Health Affairs’ 25 Most-Read Articles From 2006
To celebrate the start of Health Affairs’ 25th anniversary year, we list here the 25 most frequently viewed articles published in 2006. In 2006, Health Affairs’’ Web readership grew to 12 million pageviews.
The paper on nurse staffing in hospitals by Jack Needleman and colleagues took the top spot for a paper published in 2006 with 37,547 pageviews. Two papers from 2005 earned the “most-read overall” ranking: “Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care?” by Richard Hillestad and colleagues from Health Affairs’ September/October 2005 issue attracted 40,263 pageviews in 2006, and the medical bankruptcy Web Exclusive by David Himmelstein and colleagues from February 2005 continued its high readership, adding 39,262 pageviews in 2006 to its over 70,000 pageviews from 2005, thus surpassing 100,000 readings of the paper.
25 Most-Read Health Affairs Papers Published in 2006: http://www.healthaffairs.org/Top25_2006_MostRead.php
25 Most-Read Health Affairs Papers Overall Online in 2006: http://www.healthaffairs.org/Top25_2006_MostRead_Overall.phpWe are sending this notice to subscribers so you may see which papers your cohorts viewed most often at www.healthaffairs.org. As a subscriber you have online access to these papers and to all journal content. To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we are opening access to the 25 papers from 2006 through January 19, 2007, so you may share these with colleagues, students and others who may not currently have access.
(emphasis added)
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
AHLA's Health Lawyers News (5 January 2007)
Top Stories
- Medicaid Commission Issues Final Report On Medicaid Reform
The Medicaid Commission said "fundamental reform" is needed to shore up the long term sustainability of the federal-state Medicaid program in a final report issued December 29 that details its recommendations for achieving that end. Full Story - OIG Finds Only Three Of Ten State False Claims Acts Submitted For Review Comply With DRA Requirements
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) has determined that only three of ten state False Claims Acts (FCAs) that it recently reviewed comply with all the requirements set forth in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) to be eligible for the financial incentive bonus, according to information posted on OIG's website December 29. Full Story
Articles & Analyses
- Congress Approves Medicare, Medicaid Changes, by Karen S. Sealander and Eric Zimmerman, McDermott Will & Emery LLP
- CMS Issues Long-Awaited DRA Compliance Guidance And Teleconference, by Elizabeth Callahan-Morris, Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, PLLC
. . . and many news items of note.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Another angle on middlemen
* Krugman's column is here, which is a TimesSelect address that requires a paid subscription. There's a good summary over at Mark Thoma's blog.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
HIPAA privacy rule: Is it time for (re)reform?
"[I]ncreasingly complex confidentiality issues" in federal medical privacy rules "are affecting patients and their insurance coverage," the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, complaints of privacy violations "have been piling up." Between April 2003 and Nov. 30, 2006, HHS received 23,896 complaints related to medical-privacy rules. An HHS spokesperson said 75% of those complaints have been closed because no violations were found or informal guidance was provided to involved parties. Since HIPAA was enacted in 2003, HHS has not taken enforcement actions against any entity for violating the privacy rule. The Journal profiled attorney Patricia Galvin, who was denied disability benefits after her health insurer, UnumProvident, accessed notes from psychotherapy sessions at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. According to the Journal, UnumProvident said the notes indicated that Galvin was not "too injured to work" after she was involved in a car accident and applied for long-term disability leave. UnumProvident had asked Galvin to sign a broad release to access her basic medical records, which included some of the psychotherapist's notes about Galvin that Stanford had scanned into its computer records system. Galvin has filed a lawsuit against Stanford and UnumProvident for violating medical privacy laws, among other issues, under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA includes added protection for mental health records, but Stanford in court papers said that "psychotherapy notes that are kept together with the patient's other medical records are not defined as 'psychotherapy' notes under HIPAA." Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University who helped write the regulations, said, "We're three years into the enforcement of the rule, and they haven't brought their first enforcement initiative." He added, "It sends the signal that the health system can ignore this issue" (Francis, Wall Street Journal, 12/26/06).