RNs Blast Court Ruling - Pledge To Seek Legal, Other Actions To Defend Nurses' Right To Advocate For Patient Safety

University of California registered nurses, joined by leaders of their organization from across California and the nation today condemned the latest ruling by a San Francisco court to enjoin registered nurses from striking over a current contract re-opener as a dangerous infringement on democratic rights and an encouragement to hospital officials to continue to ignore pervasive...

Federal Agencies Will Establish A 'Do Not Pay List' To Prevent Fraud

The Washington Post: "President Obama will order federal agencies Friday to establish a national 'do not pay list' to prevent the government from paying benefits, contracts, grants and loans to ineligible people or organizations, according to senior administration officials...

Health Settlement For Ground Zero Workers Faces New Hurdles

The Wall Street Journal: "After years of frustration, workers sickened in the recovery and cleanup efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are on the verge of getting paid for their illnesses. Yet the proposed legal settlement of up to $712 million also would pay money to thousands of people who aren't sick at all...

EPINEPHrine Shortage May Cause Dangerous Medication Errors

A National Alert for Serious Medication Errors (NAN) was issued yesterday by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), warning health care practitioners about dangerous medication errors that could be caused by a shortage of EPINEPHrine* pre-filled syringes...

Federal Government Seeks Power To Exclude Those Involved With Health Fraud From Working Again With Medicare

The Hill: "Independent federal investigators hoping to rein in Medicare fraud are asking Congress for broad new authority to boot offending corporate executives from the insurance program. The change is designed to control Medicare claims fraud by punishing culpable owners, managers and other corporate higher-ups, and not just the convicted companies. ...

NIH Committee Recommends Withholding Federal Support For 47 Stem Cell Lines

The NIH Advisory Committee to Director Francis Collins recommended that the agency reject federal research funding for 47 embryonic stem cell lines because of a sentence of legal language in a contract signed by embryo donors, USA Today reports...

Today's Opinions: Medicare Advantage To Shrink; Insurers Anti-Trust Protection; Health Law Regulations; The Need For Maternity Leave

Medicare Advantage: You Get What You Pay For Kaiser Health News In the long run, there's no getting around the fact that Advantage plans will shrink in generosity and availability (Austin Frakt, 6/14)...

NPR Examines Growing Number Of Workplace Discrimination Lawsuits Brought By Caregivers

NPR's "All Things Considered" on Thursday examined the growing number of workplace discrimination lawsuits brought by employees who act as caregivers, including women who have children...

New Documents Show Kagan's Involvement In Abortion Ban Issue As Clinton Aide

As a White House aide in the Clinton administration, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan worked closely on issues related to abortion later in pregnancy, according to new documents released Friday, Politico reports (Gerstein, Politico, 6/11)...

White House Urged To Promote Health Care Innovation; Feds Prepare $25 Million In Malpractice Grants

The Hill: A medical device trade group and former lawmaker separately called on the White House to do more to promote life-saving medical innovation this week. "In separate events Wednesday and Thursday, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo...

Florida GOP Gov. Candidate Surges Despite Questions About Involvement In Medicare Fraud Case

Opponents of Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott are questioning Scott's involvement in a health care fraud case when he was the CEO for Columbia/HCA hospital. So Politifact Florida/The Miami Herald review his role: "Now about Scott's departure (as CEO) in 1997...

U.S. Judge Approves $712.5 Million Settlement For 9/11 Responders' Health Problems

USA Today: "Thousands of first responders, firefighters and construction workers sickened by toxic rubble at Ground Zero could share in a settlement of up to $712.5 million announced Thursday, three months after a federal judge said a previous deal did not pay victims enough. U.S...

Internal Medicine Board Sanctions Doctors For Cheating On Certification Tests; APA To Issue Conflict-Of-Interest Guidelines

The American Board of Internal Medicine has sanctioned 139 doctors for cheating on exams it uses for board certifications, CQ HealthBeat reports. "The board also sued a test prep firm, as well as a handful of doctors viewed as the worst offenders, in federal court...

Fla. AG Urges Support For Ultrasound Bill; Alliance Defense Fund Offers To Defend Challenged Ind. Abortion Ordinance

Florida's governor is weighing whether to sign a bill that would require ultrasounds before abortions, while Allen County, Ind., officials are considering the Alliance Defense Fund's offer to provide no-cost legal services to defend a county ordinance imposing abortion regulations. Summaries appear below. ~ Florida: After more than five weeks of negotiations, state legislators sent Gov...

Woman Who Put Methadone In Baby's Pacifier To Stop Him Crying Jailed For Three Years

Susan Taylor, 29, from Edinburgh, Scotland has been jailed for three years for putting methadone - a heroin substitute - in a baby's pacifier (dummy) to stop him crying. Ms. Taylor admitted to a charge of culpably and recklessly causing the baby to ingest methadone, to the danger of his life in November, 2008. Ms. Taylor said he was a "grumpy" baby...

Opinion Pieces Discuss Alaska Parental Notification Ballot Initiative

An opinion piece and editorial in the Anchorage Daily News examined issues related to a parental notification initiative that will appear on Alaska's August ballot. The measure would require parental involvement for minors seeking abortions. Summaries appear below...

N.J. Court Case Examines End-Of-Life Decisions

The Wall Street Journal: A New Jersey court is weighing if the life of Ruben Betancourt "should have been prolonged and who should have made that decision: the hospital or his family." In a lawsuit, "his daughter, Jacqueline Betancourt, contends that her father was aware of his family's presence and that the hospital had no right to terminate life support without the family's agreement...

Documents From Clinton Era Portray Kagan As Pragmatic Strategist On Issues Like Abortion, Contraception

The National Archives released 46,700 pages of documents Friday from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's tenure as a policy adviser and legal counsel in the Clinton administration that reveal "a woman who ... was trying to balance competing policy objectives and chart a centrist course" on issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research, the New York Times reports...

Unprecedented Experiment On Aligning Primary Care Practices With Health Reform Concludes

An unprecedented research project into how to transform primary care practices into patient-centered medical homes has concluded with the release of a new eight-paper supplement to the May/June issue of Annals of Family Medicine. After working for two years with 36 practices nationwide, a team of researchers whose leaders included Benjamin F...

Kagan Memos From Marshall Clerkship Provide Insight Into Views On Social Policy

Hundreds of memos that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan wrote in the late 1980s during a clerkship for former Justice Thurgood Marshall indicate a largely "liberal sensibility" on many issues, including abortion rights, the New York Times reports (Savage, New York Times, 6/4)...

N.J. Court Case Examines End-Of-Life Decisions

The Wall Street Journal: A New Jersey court is weighing if the life of Ruben Betancourt "should have been prolonged and who should have made that decision: the hospital or his family." In a lawsuit, "his daughter, Jacqueline Betancourt, contends that her father was aware of his family's presence and that the hospital had no right to terminate life support without the family's agreement...

Was Flu Pandemic Advice By World Health Organization Compromised?

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) said that its advice to governments to stockpile pandemic flu drugs was not influenced by the drug industry, it did not reveal that some of the key scientists behind this recommendation had financial links with companies which stood to benefit financially, a report by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Bureau of Investigative ...

State Roundup: Health Law Could Be Critical For Miss.'s Poor; Colorado Passes End-Of-Life Care Laws, Penn. Details Plan For High Risk Pool

The Los Angeles Times: The health care overhaul, which "provides hundreds of billions of dollars to help states expand medical insurance for the poor," could prove critical for Mississippi, which "has the highest poverty rate in the nation and some of the sickest people, with the country's highest rate of heart disease and the second-highest rate of diabetes...

A Simple Apology Could Fuel Settlement Of Legal Disputes

Apologies may be good for more than just the soul, according to research by a University of Illinois professor of law and of psychology...

FTC Delays 'Red Flags' Rule; Doctors' Lawsuit Continues

The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reports on the controversy over doctors and the Federal Trade Commission's 'red flags' rule. The rule, which have been delayed several times already, "requires businesses offering credit to come up with a written policy for finding, preventing and dealing with identity theft." The rule is now scheduled to be implemented Dec. 31...