Tampa Bay Personal Injury Lawyer - Miscellaneous

New Change to HIPAA Protects Patient’s Genetic Information

C. Todd Alley — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:24:56 GMT

On October 1^st, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new interim rules protecting patient’s genetic information from being used against them. The new rules come as the department interprets and implements the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), and serve to amend the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.

The new rules also define genetic information, genetic services, genetic testing, and related terms and phrases. Genetic information is defined as "information about the individual's genetic tests or the genetic tests of family members… [and] family medical history." This definition also clarifies that "genetic information" does not cover information about an individual's sex or age.

Under the new rule, group health plans and issuers in the group market cannot:

Increase premiums for the group based on the results of one enrollee’s genetic information;
Deny enrollment;
Impose pre-existing condition exclusions; or
Do other forms of underwriting based on genetic information.

In the individual health insurance market, GINA similarly prohibits issuers from using genetic information to deny coverage, raise premiums, or impose pre-existing condition exclusions. Additionally, insurance companies are prohibited from asking individuals or family members to undergo a genetic test. A violation of any of the above prohibitions can lead to fines from $100 to up to $50,000 per offense.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sabelius supported the new rule, saying “consumer confidence in genetic testing can now grow and help researchers get a better handle on the genetic basis of diseases.” This comes after stories of patients too afraid of having genetic testing done, for fear of becoming unable to obtain insurance.

Sebelius added, “Genetic testing will encourage the early diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases while allowing scientists to develop new medicines, treatments, and therapies.”

Some insurance industry representatives don’t see GINA as necessary. “It’s an anecdotal fear,” said Mohit M. Ghose, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, whose members provide benefits for 200 million Americans. Nonetheless, the fear can compromise the health of patients too afraid of losing health insurance by undergoing genetic testing. GINA and the new interim rule looks to alleviate the patients’ fears, and doctors can now more efficiently diagnose and treat certain diseases early.

The new interim rule is open to public comment for 60 days. The rule will then become final, barring any setback.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by C. Todd Alley

Tobacco Control Act and What it Means for Tobacco Users

Jim Clark — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:34:40 GMT

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act passed easily in both the House and Senate and was signed into law on June 22 of this year. The bill creates greater restrictions on the sale of tobacco products, as well as the ingredients inside cigarettes. But most importantly, it gives the FDA much greater power in regulating tobacco products. Most recently, the FDA is putting together a 12 person panel to advise the FDA on overseeing the industry.

With the bill’s passage, tobacco product manufacturers must now disclose all ingredients in its products, the form and delivery method of nicotine, and any research into the health, toxicological, behavioral, or physiologic effects of tobacco products to the FDA. They must also notify the FDA of any future changes to any of the ingredients or its effects. Additionally, new tobacco products must be reviewed by the FDA before they can go onto the market, and companies are banned from promoting products as lower-risk alternatives without FDA certification that the product will likely improve public health (good luck with that one, Big Tobacco).

How will we see this bill’s effect? For starters, the new oversight committee is funded wholly by fees assessed on tobacco companies and traders. This will in turn raise the cost of tobacco products, although not considerably so. Also, the bill requires the warning labels on packaging be more prominent. And finally, tobacco sponsorships of sporting, athletic and entertainment events using tobacco brand names and logos have been banned.

All of this movement toward more regulation of Big Tobacco is important to everyone, smoker or non-smoker, in light of the American Cancer Society report issued just this past week which projects 6 million deaths worldwide next year from the use of tobacco. These deaths will result from cancer, emphysema, heart disease and a whole host of other diseases and illnesses. Additionally, ACS estimates that tobacco use costs the global economy $500 BILLION a year in direct medical expenses, lost productivity and environmental harm.

Hopefully this bill takes us one step forward to ensuring more responsible marketing of tobacco products after decades of misleading advertising and other unethical practices by Big Tobacco.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Clark

Youth Pastor Sent to Prison for Sex Abuse

Joe Saunders — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:54:31 GMT

Scott Dewayne Wright, 35, was a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel Worship Center in NewPort Richey. He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual activity with a minor child and received a 49 months in prison. The victim's name has been witheld due to her age. He abused the young girl at her home. He befriended the child while serving as a youth pastor and had gained the trust and confidence of the victim's family. Wright, married and a father of four, will not be allowed to live near children once he leaves prison. He'll also be a registered sex offender and be placed on sex offender probation. It's yet to be determined whether he'll have visitation priviledges regarding his own children.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

Musings from the All-Star Game

Joe Saunders — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:25:59 GMT

I had the opportunity to attend last night's All-Star game in St. Louis with my son last evening. It was a great game-fast paced with some exciting plays in the field, especially by hometown favorite Carl Crawford.

As we prepare to travel back to Tampa today, I couldn't help but think about the goodwill generated by the pre-game ceremonies, the back stories about the players, and the game itself. Baseball is fortunate to have many goodwill ambassadors, perhaps none more exemplary than Albert Pujols. Besides being a fantastic ballplayer, he's a gentleman who's humble and gives back to his St. Louis community.

These players and an exciting game last night help fans forget about the problems that linger in baseball such as steroids and the use of banned substances. In some instances, such as JC Romero's case, the banned substance violation should scare us all. Romero was suspended for using a banned substance that he purchased at a GNC store in Cherry Hill, NJ. He consulted with the team trainer about the purchased dietary supplement and was given the go-ahead to use it. Unfortunately, for Romero, the product labeling wasn't complete and 6-OXO Extreme contained substances (unknown to Romero) banned by Major League Baseball.

Romero's case points out a potential problem for all of us with dietary supplements. The products aren't evaluated or regulated by the FDA. While they boast about using "all natural" ingredients, the consumer never knows the combinations of those ingredients nor the quantities mixed together. It's a dangerous situation for all consumers, not just ball players.

Anyway, steroids and banned substances aside, baseball is alive and well because of the quality of its players. They are not only All-Stary because of their physical prowess. They are All-Stars as well for the content of their character.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

Dirty Little Secret in the Health Care Insurance World Is Exposed

Jim Clark — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Health insurance policy holders would expect to be paying an insurance premium so that they are protected in the event of serious illness. But that’s not always the case when the insurance company no longer sees the policy holder as profitable.

A greedy, unethical, and downright sleazy practice held by some of the world’s largest insurance underwriters has been the practice of rescinding policies of its customers using the contract technicalities. Desperate to drop policy holders who become seriously ill (many of whom have been paying their insurance premiums for years), insurance companies have encouraged its employees to find ways to terminate the policy, saving the insurance company millions of dollars in health care cost a year.

In one case, a nurse diagnosed with breast cancer was dropped because she failed to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne. In another, a man was denied coverage when diagnosed with lymphoma for failure to report a possible aneurysm and gallstones that his physician noted in his chart but did not discuss with him.

This has been ongoing for years, but only recently has it come to light. One day after President Obama outlined his proposals for reforming America’s health care system, a congressional subcommittee convened to tackle the issue of insurance policy rescission. They called upon top executives and took turns grilling them, from both sides of the aisle. When asked the question, “Would your company stop the practice of rescinding policies absent intentional fraud?” The answer given by three industry leaders was “no.”

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) stated “if a citizen acts in good faith, we should expect the insurance company that takes their money to act in good faith also." Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) was more aggressive, saying “when times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums, but when times are bad . . . some insurance companies use a technicality to justify breaking its promise, at a time when most patients are too weak to fight back." Stupak also used this opportunity to support a public choice option in health care, saying such an option would help keep health insurance agencies honest, since customers would have other reasonable options.

Clearly, the insurance companies aren’t willing to limit policy rescissions to intentional fraud, so the government needs to step in to protect its people. California has already proposed legislature, but a problem as universal as this requires federal legislation. It will not be surprising to see a proposal coming out of the ongoing subcommittee meetings, and everyone – those for health care reform and those against – should support it. It’s not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of ethics.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Clark

NY Child Victim Act May Come Up For Vote Today

Joe Saunders — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:01:41 GMT

The much antipated Child Victim Act may finally reach a vote in the NY State Legislature today. The bill has been aggressively opposed by the NY State Catholic Conference and Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy.

The bill has been amended by its sponsor Rep. Margaret Markey to include both public and private institutions. The measure would allow childhood victims of sexual abuse the opportunity at justice in the courts. Since the statute of limitations has long since passed in many of these tragic cases, the bill would allow those abused by priests, nuns, teachers, and other public officials to bring lawsuits against the perpetrators as well as the institutions who covered up the systemic abuse. One amendment to the bill which is not so good but necessary for passage is the age restriction placed on the measure. Only those who have not reached their 53rd birthday would be eligible.

In sum, here's hoping the bill passes so that thousands of childhood sex abuse victims can seek justice and healing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

NY Child Victim Act Amended to Include Public Institutions

Joe Saunders — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:53:00 GMT

In a surprising move, NY state Rep. Margaret Markey has announced that she'll offer an amendment to her Child Victim Act bill to include public institutions as well.

The Child Victim Act is designed to give a voice to those who've suffered childhood sexual abuse but had no legal recourse due to the statute of limitations. The amendment will remove the sole objection the Catholic Church and other private institutions have had regarding the bill.

Now that the amendment has been offered, there should be no excuse whatsoever to oppose the legislation. Even NY Catholic Church officials were taken off guard by the announcement. A spokesperson for the NY State Catholic Conference told the NY Times, "This is not what we expected; this is something new.”

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

Hospital’s Not as Recession-Proof as Once Thought

Jim Clark — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:48:16 GMT

The American Hospital Association (AHA), as released a comprehensive survey of hospitals throughout the country. Approximately 1,100 hospitals responded to a survey conducted in March of 2009. The report clearly indicates hospitals are making major cutbacks as a direct result of the economic downturn. Those surveyed reported:

90% have made significant cutbacks.
80% have cut administration costs.
50% have reduced staff.
20% have reduced subsidized services (behavioral health, post acute care, patient education, etc.).

These cutbacks are a direct result of a decrease in revenue, and other factors including:

Increasing proportion of emergency department patients without insurance.
Increase in patients on Medicaid and other public programs for low-income populations.
Fewer patients opting for unnecessary (yet important) elective services.

The numbers are disheartening, but are to be expected in such an economic recession. From this data, an interesting question is raised: What effect will this have the quality of healthcare for patients? One argument is that the layoffs and staff reductions will not affect the quality patients receive, since those who are laid off are primarily in elective services.

However, as staff is reduced, the burden on the remaining staff and physicians becomes even greater. As a result, patients will likely find longer delays in treatment, backlogs of patients awaiting care will become longer, and further strain on already over-loaded care workers will mount. It is difficult to speculate as to the gravity of this effect, but undoubtedly these cuts will only further oppress the healthcare industry’s ability to provide adequate care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Clark

Colonoscopies, AIDS and VA Hospitals

Joe Saunders — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:21:51 GMT

Three VA patients have tested positive for AIDS after colonscopy equipment was not properly cleaned and sterilized. Another 25 VA patients, 7 in Florida have contracted hepatitis B or C due to similar contamination issues. While VA officials are quick to deny the link between the diseases and the improperly sterilized medical equipment, the Veterans Administration has contacted 3,341 people who may have been similarly exposed.

Last month the VA reported that three hospitals in Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia failed to follow the proper sterilization procedures regarding colonoscopy machines. Rather than the prescribed method of disinfection, the machines were merely rinsed leaving other patients open to exposure to serious, infectious diseases.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders

St. Petersburg Minister Arrested and Charged with Sexual Battery

Joe Saunders — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:29:12 GMT

A long-time minister at New Life Tabernacle Church has been arrested and charged with sexual battery of a 15 year old church member. According to arrest reports, Evans Justice Bacon 58, posted $65,000 and has been released from jail. St. Petersburg police are investigating to determine if there are additional victims.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Joe Saunders