October 1, 2008 – Beginning on this date, hospitals will not be able to receive additional payment for cases in which a patient experiences an avoidable problem while under hospital care. Medicare has issued a list of Hospital-Acquired Conditions that includes foreign objects retained after surgery, incompatible blood products, falls and trauma, bedsores/decubitus ulcers, and more. Hopefully, this will provide additional financial incentive for hospitals to provide the best medical care possible. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ...
continue reading...September 30, 2008 – Manufacturers of products containing milk chocolate, such as Cadbury, Mars and Kraft Foods, have been recalling some products as a precautionary measure after learning that milk produced in China has been found to contain melamine.
Melamine is an industrial chemical that is high in nitrogen and used to make plastics. In an attempt to hide the protein deficiency of watered-down milk during quality testing, Chinese milk producers have added melamine. In China, baby formula and other dairy ...
continue reading...Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D- CA) have all introduced legislation known as the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. The proposed Act would require drug companies to file quarterly reports disclosing payments of $25 or more made to physicians for speaking, consulting, travel, gifts, food, etc.
Eli Lilly and Co. has volunteered to disclose payments of more than $500 to doctors who are compensated for ...
continue reading...Proposed legislation to make drug companies identify payments to physicians
Posted September 24, 2008 in Drug and Medical Device Lawsuits | Health | Legal Issues | Product Liability | Product News and Recalls
September 24, 2008 – The Physician Payment Sunshine Act Legislation proposed in both the Senate and House, known as the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, would require drug companies to make quarterly reports disclosing payments of $25 or more made to physicians for speaking, consulting, travel, merchandise, etc. Read More
continue reading...July 31, 2008 – The U.S. Senate introduced a bill to permit lawsuits brought by patients who are injured by certain medical devices. This bill is directly intended to reverse the Supreme Court decision Riegel v. Medtronic Inc., in which the Court held that medical device companies are shielded from lawsuits for defective medical devices. The bill, named the Medical Device Safety Act of 2008, was introduced by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and ...
continue reading...Iraq War Contractor Litigation
Posted July 22, 2008 in Legal Issues | Product News and Recalls
Iraq War Contractor Litigation – Lopez McHugh represents the families of nineteen civilian truck drivers, employees of Halliburton, who were killed in Iraq. These lawsuits had previously been dismissed by the District Court for the Southern District of Texas, but the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that decision and remanded the cases for trial. The cases are now expected to go to trial in September of 2009.
The Court of Appeals’ Opinion can be ...
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