Health Law

Visiting Cousin in Psych Ward Gets N.Y. Lawyer Suspended for 5 Years

A former chief counsel for the New York fire department’s bureau of legal affairs has been suspended from practice for five years. His offense against legal ethics was visiting a cousin in a psychiatric unit in 2002, in order to complete the paperwork for the sale of the cousin’s home…

Aug 19, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

Calif. Supreme Court Rules for Gay Couple Denied Fertility Treatments

The California Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s anti-discrimination law bars two physicians from refusing to provide artificial insemination to a lesbian couple because of their sexual orientation. “The First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion,” the court said, “does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming…

Aug 19, 2008 10:55 AM CDT

Murder Tragedy Shines Spotlight on Advocacy Program for Mentally Ill

William Bruce was able to gain release from a mental hospital with the help of patient advocates funded by the federal government, despite his doctor’s recommendations that he remain at the facility. “Very dangerous indeed for release to the community,” one doctor wrote in Bruce’s record. Two months later, in…

Aug 18, 2008 3:10 PM CDT

Landmark Mass. Brain Injury Settlement Could Put 2,000 in Community Care

An unprecedented settlement between Massachusetts and an advocacy group could eventually help 2,000 brain-injured patients from nursing homes to community care. Among them is 29-year-old Kaya Alexander, who has lived in a nursing home since a 2006 auto accident left her partially paralyzed, and desperately wants to be back among…

Aug 14, 2008 11:09 PM CDT

Overseer Moves to Seize $8B in California Funds for Prison Health Care

A court-appointed overseer for health care in California prisons has asked a federal judge to turn over $8 billion in state funds. J. Clark Kelso said the money is needed to meet minimum constitutional standards for prison health care, the Los Angeles Times reports. He said U.S. District Judge Thelton…

Aug 14, 2008 2:02 PM CDT

New Federal Reg Could Restrict Birth Control & Abortion Rights

Traditionally, a human embryo has been defined as a fertilized egg that has latched onto the uterine wall. But a draft regulation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to expand that definition to include fertilized eggs before they become embedded in the uterus. Under that definition,…

Aug 8, 2008 4:19 PM CDT

Kansas Settles ‘Kiss and Tell’ Teen Sex Reporting Case

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the state of Kansas have agreed to a $475,000 settlement of a lawsuit prompted by a sweeping 2003 attorney general opinion that required health clinics, especially abortion clinics, to report incidents of teen sex. In 2006, the center won a restraining order in federal…

Aug 8, 2008 2:19 PM CDT

Feds Raid 3 Calif. Hospitals, Arrest CEO

In the latest fallout from reports in 2006 that hospitals were dumping homeless patients in need of care on the streets, federal agents investigating alleged Medicare fraud raided three hospitals in the Los Angeles area today. They arrested the chief executive officer of one, Rudra Sabaratnam of City of Angels…

Aug 6, 2008 11:19 PM CDT

127 UCLA Medical Center Workers Peeped Into Celebrity Files, Report Says

Unauthorized peeping into celebrity medical files at UCLA Medical Center was more widespread than previously believed, involving at least 127 employees. Regulators who reported this tally fault the hospital for not taking more effective measures to protect patient confidentiality, writes the Los Angeles Times. Despite announcements that unauthorized access to…

Aug 5, 2008 8:45 PM CDT

Proposed Reg Allows Health Workers to Opt Out of Birth Control, Abortions

A controversial draft regulation would require hospitals and other health-care entities that receive federal funds to allow workers to opt out of providing care that violates their moral and religious convictions. Critics say the proposal by the Department of Health and Human Services could affect access to abortions and birth…

Jul 31, 2008 11:55 AM CDT

Calif. is 1st State to Ban Restaurants from Using Trans Fat

With a stroke of the pen today, California’s health-conscious Republican governor, movie actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, terminated restaurants’ use of trans fats. The statewide ban on cooking with unhealthy oils and margarine at commercial eateries won’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2010, at the earliest, under the enacted legislation…

Jul 25, 2008 10:26 PM CDT

Judge Orders Calif. Woman Back on Life Support

A central California woman who has been without food or water since July 14 is now back on life support again, after a state judge ordered that a feeding tube be reinserted. Janet Rivera, 46, has been comatose for two years, following a heart attack. Because her husband also suffers…

Jul 24, 2008 4:09 PM CDT

L.A. Moves Closer to Limiting New Fast-Food Restaurants

Los Angeles has moved a step closer to banning new fast-food restaurants for at least a year in a significant swath of the city. A city council committee last night unanimously approved a measure calling for at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food franchises in a 32-square-mile area including…

Jul 23, 2008 6:47 PM CDT

Jail Often the Only Option for Mental Health Treatment

It costs more to treat the mentally ill in jail than in a hospital setting. But jail offers the only treatment alternative for many, due to a lack of psychiatric hospitals. So some inmates actually welcome the opportunity to return to jail and get needed treatment, reports the Houston Chronicle.…

Jul 21, 2008 7:23 PM CDT

New Jersey Woman Sues Surgeon Over Temporary Rose Tattoo

A New Jersey woman has sued the doctor who operated on her back for a herniated disk–not because of any issue with the surgery, but because of what she found on her front the next day: a temporary red rose tattoo. Recounts the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The patient discovered the tattoo…

Jul 18, 2008 8:12 PM CDT