Overlawyered » HIPAA

January 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:12:45 +0000

Illinois now requires showing of ID, signing of log to buy drain cleaner. So long as you’re not trying to vote! [Consumerist via @amyalkon]
Tribute to no-longer-anonymous Ken White of Popehat and his work defending bloggers from legal threats [Scott Greenfield; earlier; Ken's defense in Maryland of blogger Aaron Worthing; new case of science blogger in Texas]
Politicos mobilize against risk that Wal-Mart will bring fresh produce choices to Harlem [Greg Beato] India frets about whether to allow chain stores, recapitulating a debate U.S. once went through [Tabarrok, MR]
Colorado legislators honored at a luncheon where I spoke [CCJL]
HHS launches initiative to audit health providers for compliance with HIPAA data privacy law, and many are unprepared [American Medical News, Dana Thrasher, Dom Nicastro/HealthLeaders Media]
New scholarship on effects of Twombly/Iqbal [Drug and Device Law series first, second, third, CL&P]
Congratulations to the outstanding Abnormal Use for winning the ABA’s “Blawg 100” vote for best torts blog; we feel pretty good about placing third without mounting a campaign. While exploring that site, don’t miss its stellar coverage of the tendentious documentary “Hot Coffee”.

Tags: bloggers and the law, Colorado, HIPAA, hot coffee, Illinois, India, legal blogs, pleading, Wal-Mart

August 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:54:17 +0000

General Mills sends lawyers after local “My Dough Girl” Bakery [Consumerist via Amy Alkon]
But he can reapply in five years: “Lawyer Takes Plea in Case Over His Hardball Litigation Tactics, Will Be Disbarred” [ABA Journal, California]
“Shame on Elie Wiesel” for threatening a lawsuit over his fictionalization in a stage play [Terry Teachout]
State AGs dive into HIPAA and health privacy enforcement [Nicastro, Health Leaders Media]
More highlights from Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Tabarrok]
Denver school board investment fiasco [Popehat]
Russell Jackson on the Yoo-Hoo chocolate beverage class action [Consumer Class Actions and Mass Torts, earlier]
California court rules state’s Moscone (”little Norris-LaGuardia”) Act unconstitutional [Workplace Prof]

Tags: advertising, alcohol, Denver, HIPAA, labor unions, trademarks

February 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:29:15 +0000

Patent trolls are thriving, one study finds [271 Patent Blog, The Prior Art, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PDF]
One plaintiff’s lawyer’s view: Did Rep. John Murtha Die From Medical Malpractice? [Turkewitz]
“Rubber stamps for two [class action] settlements” [Ted Frank, Center for Class Action Fairness, AOL and Yahoo cases]
Little League and baseball bats: “America’s favorite pastime collides with favorite pastime of personal injury lawyers” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
States push home day-care providers into unions [Stossel]
U.K.: “Cardiologist will fight libel case ‘to defend free speech’” [Times Online] More on British libel tourism: Frances Gibb, Times Online (”It’s official – London is the libel capital of the world” ), Citizen Media Law, Gordon Crovitz/WSJ, N.Y. Times.
From a half-year back, but missed then: FBI says Miami lawyer bought stolen hospital records for purposes of soliciting patients [HIPAA Blog, Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
Would-be Green Police can be found in Cambridge, Mass., not just Super Bowl ads [Peter Wilson, American Thinker via Graham]

Tags: baseball, baseball bats, chasing clients, environment, HIPAA, hospitals, labor unions, libel slander and defamation, Little League, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, patent trolls, Ted Frank, United Kingdom

February 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:33:34 +0000

Wronged wife loses suit under California “Drug Dealer Liability Act” (DDLA) against mistress who supplied crack cocaine to husband [OnPoint News]
“D.C. Circuit to Former Judge in Pants Lawsuit: Follow the Rules” [NLJ, more, earlier]
“Law firm demands retailer destroy all copies of Olivia Munn comic, retailer refuses” [BoingBoing, HeavyInk, earlier on TJIC]
Can’t find jury for tobacco trial: “Lawyers excused a woman who said people have no right to sue over diseases that are disclosed on the warning label of a package.” [Russell Jackson, Chamber-backed W.V. Record]
Despite widespread misconception to the contrary, editing comments generally does not open blogger to liability over what remains [Citizen Media Law]
To heck with HIPAA, introduce your patients to each other if you think they’ll get along [Musings of a Dinosaur]
Devoted daughter vs. RSPCA: epic will contest in Britain over family farm bequest [Times Online]
Woman found guilty after planting dead rat in meal at upscale restaurant [Appleton Post-Crescent via Lowering the Bar and Obscure Store]

Tags: alienation of affection, bloggers and the law, finger in the chili, HIPAA, illegal drugs, jury selection, Roy Pearson, wills and trusts

“How patient privacy laws impede electronic communication with doctors”

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:09:55 +0000

Staying in touch with your doctor via IM? It’s more likely to happen in Mexico than here. Kevin MD quotes one doctor who “suspects that the demand that patients have to electronically talk to their doctors will force a change in privacy laws. We can only hope.”

Tags: HIPAA, privacy

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:44:05 +0000

Uh-huh: new report from federal Legal Services program calls for gigantic new allocation of tax money to, well, legal services programs [ABA Journal]
“Judge: Man’s a ‘vexatious litigator’” [Cincinnati.com]
Wisconsin governor signs bill requiring prescription to buy mercury thermometer [Popehat]
“Injured by art?” Woman sues Museum of Fine Arts Houston after fall in artist-designed light tunnel [Mary Flood, Houston Chronicle "Legal Trade"]
On Carol Browner and the cry of “environmental racism” (a/k/a “green redlining”) [Coyote]
New York: “Lawyers implicated in $9 million mortgage fraud” [Business Insider]
In Canada, as in the U.S., medical privacy rules hamper police investigations [Calgary Herald]
Stalin’s grandson loses lawsuit in Russia against newspaper that supposedly defamed the dictator [WSJ Law Blog, Lowering the Bar, Volokh]

Tags: art and artists, Canada, Cincinnati, environment, HIPAA, Houston, legal services programs, mortgages, redlining, Russia, serial litigants, Wisconsin

Medical privacy laws vs. adoption of electronic medical records

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:10:07 +0000

Nearly every policy wonk in the health care debate favors faster adoption of electronic medical records, but laws passed at the urging of other policy wonks seem to be getting in the way:

Hospitals have seen a decrease in EMR adoption in states where privacy laws restrict their ability to disclose patient information, according to a study published in the journal Management Science.

The study shows that states that have enacted medical privacy laws restricting the ability of hospitals to disclose patient information have seen a reduction in EMR adoption by 11 percent over a three-year period or 24 percent overall. States with no such regulations, on the other hand, experienced a 21 percent gain in hospital EMR adoption.

[Health Care IT News via HIPAABlog]

Tags: HIPAA, privacy

FERPA meets HIPAA

Walter Olson — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:21:33 +0000

The feds have issued guidance on the interplay of two complicated laws enacted by Congress in the name of privacy, FERPA (college students) and HIPAA (medical information). The intersection between the two was the subject of considerable attention at the time of the Virginia Tech massacre, carried out by a mentally disturbed student whose deteriorating condition had been kept a secret from many interested parties because of the laws. [HIPAA Blog]

Tags: HIPAA, privacy, Virginia Tech

October 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:10:48 +0000

NYC judge tosses injury suit against Lawyers Athletic League filed by a player on Milberg’s team [NYLJ]
Kentucky fen-phen lawyers Gallion and Cunningham disbarred [Lexington Herald-Leader]
Worker’s comp doc claims he noticed abnormal lab result and told patient to check with his primary doc. Patient didn’t and harm ensued. Malpractice? [CalLaw Legal Pad, KevinMD, Happy Hospitalist]
Federalist Society publishes text of Judge Dennis Jacobs’s speech on pro bono, but Chemerinsky digs in rather than apologize [PoL]
Are HIPAA privacy rules suspended during emergencies? No, and what lovely situations that’s likely to cause [HIPAA blog, more]
One of the more unusual personal injury lawyer websites is “like a touchy-feely hybrid of Myst and The Office” [Above the Law]
Gold-collar criminal defense work? McAfee decides $12 million too rich a sum for defending CFO Prabhat Goyal [Bennett & Bennett, Greenfield]
Sounds promising: “Texas Supreme Court decision could end peremptory strikes in jury selection” [SE Texas Record]

Tags: chasing clients, feeing frenzy, HIPAA, jury selection, Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud, Milberg Weiss, Texas

General links

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:25:45 +0000

*Blogroll, cont’d*

Other sites by our authors: Point of Law (Ted Frank, Walter Olson and others) / Ted Frank’s AEI Legal Center / Walter Olson home page / Our Facebook group

Law:

BlawgRev / Brennan Center / Briefcase (Ohio) / CalBizLit / ConsLw&Pol / Day / Decs & Exs / EvilHRLady / Genova / Goldman / ILR / LawBeat (Obbie) / Legal Ethics Forum / LexMonitor / Lexis Nexis Torts / Likel’d of Succ’s / MassTortLit / Miller, Maryland Injury / Nordberg / O’Keefe / OnPointNews / Perlmutter Schuelke / Prawfs / Scruggs scandal in Mississippi: Folo, YallPolitics as well as Rossmiller / Sui Generis (NY) / TortDeform / WorkplaceProf