Health Law

Hong Kong Hotel Quarantine Spurs Swine Flu Policy Debate

The weeklong quarantine of nearly 300 people at a Hong Kong hotel has raised questions about use of the policy in fighting the A/H1N1 flu virus. The quarantine was imposed after a hotel guest tested positive for the virus that is commonly known as the swine flu, the Wall Street…

May 7, 2009 4:14 PM CDT

Exerting Their Patients

Spate of lawsuits forces change in not-for-profit hospital billing

May 2, 2009 2:30 AM CDT

Lawyer Who Traveled While Infected with TB Sues CDC

The Atlanta lawyer who caused an international scare by traveling while infected with tuberculosis has sued federal officials for publicizing his condition. Lawyer Andrew Speaker alleges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention invaded his privacy, harming his reputation and leading to the breakup of his marriage, CNN reports. Speaker…

Apr 30, 2009 11:15 AM CDT

Morgan Lewis Health Regulatory Practice Lures More Sonnenschein Lawyers

Morgan Lewis & Bockius is adding two health care partners and five associates from the Washington, D.C., office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal to its attorney roster. They include Scott Memmott, who was formerly a vice-chair of Sonnenschein’s national health care practice group. That brings the total tally of Sonnenschein…

Apr 29, 2009 10:07 PM CDT

Swine Flu Requires Look at Workplace Disaster Policies

The swine flu virus is keeping lawyer Priscilla Keith busy as she contemplates how the Indiana county that includes Indianapolis would deal with an outbreak, if one occurs there. Keith is chairman of the Public Health and Policy Interest Group of the ABA Health Law Section. She also is general…

Apr 29, 2009 7:16 PM CDT

Will Swine Flu Merit Quarantines? If So, New Laws Give States Authority

Updated: Model laws drafted amid fears of a possible bird flu pandemic give states the authority to isolate and quarantine victims of the H1N1 virus—frequently referred to as the swine flu—if the disease becomes life-threatening. The laws, drafted earlier this decade, balance the need to protect civil liberties with the…

Apr 27, 2009 2:29 PM CDT

Judge Orders Man’s Mouth Taped Shut

There were apparently just one too many outbursts from Nicklas Frasure for a southeast Idaho judge to tolerate. So he ordered that Frasure, who has a history of mental illness, have his mouth sealed with duct tape during an evidentiary hearing Monday. The unusual order came from 6th District Judge…

Apr 22, 2009 6:32 PM CDT

Fertility Docs’ Partnership Dispute Involves Phony Patient Claims

At least one female private detective had an ultrasound exam of her uterus and ovaries. Meanwhile, a physician submitted his own sperm sample to a medical rival. It was all part of a hard-fought six-year legal battle between competing fertility specialists who once a lucrative partnership together, reports the Los…

Apr 13, 2009 6:24 PM CDT

Feds Discipline Ex-Harvard Prof for Falsifying Sleep Research

A physician and former professor at Harvard Medical School has been disciplined by an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for faking data in a sleep apnea study funded by federal research grants. Dr. Robert Fogel fabricated and falsified data “so that those data would better…

Apr 10, 2009 5:36 PM CDT

$3M Settlement By LA Hospital Over Woman Who Died Untreated in ER

A $3 million settlement proposal has been accepted by the children of a Los Angeles woman who died untreated in a hospital emergency room in 2007 as she writhed in pain on the floor and family members unsuccessfully sought help by calling 911. One factor that may have promoted the…

Apr 9, 2009 11:45 PM CDT

Texas Judge Tells Medical Examiner to Help Mom Get Dead Son’s Sperm

Nikolas Colton Evans always wanted three sons. So, when he died after being punched and falling in a March 27 street assault in Austin, Texas, his mother, Marissa Evans, decided to try to harvest the 21-year-old’s sperm and arrange a posthumous pregnancy with the help of a surrogate mother. Now,…

Apr 8, 2009 4:58 PM CDT

The New Tarasoff? 6th Circuit OKs Hospital Suit Over Ax-Wielding Ex-Patient

Decades ago, the groundbreaking Tarasoff decision made the tort law casebooks after the California Supreme Court found that a treating psychotherapist had a duty to warn a third party of potential danger posed by his patient. The rule applied by the court was was later codified into state law, and…

Apr 7, 2009 8:49 PM CDT

Judge: Sperm Bank Can Be Sued for Product Liability

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled in a novel case that a sperm bank may be sued under product liability laws for failing to detect that a sperm donor had a genetic defect. The Legal Intelligencer, in an article posted today, reports that Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas N.…

Apr 2, 2009 2:58 PM CDT

Fen-Phen Lawyers Blame Cincinnati Class Action Atty for Mistakes

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating today in the second trial against disbarred Kentucky lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the fen-phen diet-drug case that was settled for $200 million in 2001. The two are accused of defrauding their clients…

Apr 2, 2009 2:40 PM CDT

After Insanity Win in Murder One Case, Lawyer Accuses DA of ‘Incompetence’

A lawyer who won a rare insanity acquittal from a Massachusetts jury last week for a client charged with the first-degree murder of his own mother has blasted the district attorney for taking the case to trial. Despite three expert opinions that his 37-year-old client, Lee Chiero, is insane, Worcester…

Mar 30, 2009 6:51 PM CDT