April 2011 Archives

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently ordered a civil monetary penalty of just over $4.3 million be paid by Cignet Health of Prince George's County in Maryland (Cignet). Forty-one patients had filed complaints with OCR after being denied access to their medical records by Cignet. OCR investigated the matter and determined that Cignet had indeed violated the patients' rights by denying them access to their medical records. The penalty for these violations was $1.3 million.

Those little bottles of gel that promise to eliminate all danger of bacteris seem too good to be true. And according to federal health regulators, in many cases the claims are.

When you rent a car from a national brand, you expect it to be safe, right? But several major rental car companies have informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that in some cases they continue to rent vehicles that have been recalled if they believe the problem is not serious. The companies claim that there are too many recalls to act on, and that it was impossible to determine what a Hertz executive called "a true safety recall."

Here is yet another story about how public anything is on the web: A Staten Island woman blogged enthusiastically about her belly dancing, resulting in the loss of monthly support payments from her ex-husband. Dorothy McGurk claimed she remained disabled and unable to work after a 1997 car accident and needed $850 a month in support payments for life from her soon-to-be ex-husband.

The use of pharmaceuticals helps treat acute illnesses and maintain control of chronic conditions in many people. But medication use can also result in morbidity and mortality from many types of adverse outcomes. Adverse outcomes can include side effects of prescribed drugs that are taken as directed, unintentional overdosing by the patient, and medication errors such as incorrect prescribing and dosing.

The FDA now provides a Product Recall Page where sorting and search functions display information in an easy-to-read format. Updates on the status of certain food recalls, such as mandatory recalls under FDA's FSMA authority are also provided. The new law also gives FDA authority to mandate food recalls under certain circumstances.