| | Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| New Rules to Limit Tactics on Hospitals’ Fee Collections | | 
| | The Obama administration has adopted sweeping new rules to discourage nonprofit hospitals from using aggressive tactics to collect payments from low-income patients. The rules, issued at the end of last year by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, lay out detailed requirements for nonprofit hospitals that have or want tax-exempt status, about 60 percent of hospitals nationwide.
Robert Pear, The New York Times 01/12/2015    | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| Appeals Court Won't Rehear a BP oil spill liability argument | |
| | A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider its 2014 ruling that BP cannot avoid federal penalties for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill by blaming another company's failed equipment. The vote released Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was 7-6 against a rehearing.
Associated Press, New Orleans Times-Picayune 01/12/2015 | | Read Article: New Orleans Times-Picayune |
| DeLorean Widow Files Suit Over DMC Upstart | |
| | The widow of DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) founder John DeLorean has filed a lawsuit against the upstart reincarnation of DMC alleging that the company has illegally used the DeLorean name to sell memorabilia. The lawsuit contends that the Texas-based company "has improperly and illegally appropriated for its own use Mr. DeLorean's legacy, including the DeLorean Identity, together with intellectual property." The lawsuit further alleges that the company should not be allowed to continue with its plans to manufacture a version of the DeLorean sports car because it is an illegal use of the car's design, which belongs to the DeLorean estate.
Brian Leon, New York Daily News 01/09/2015 | | Read Article: New York Daily News |
| Doctors Engulfed in Spine Surgeon Saga | |
| | More than a dozen physicians representing two hospitals have been named as defendants in federal lawsuits that allege they acted in bad faith by allowing a spine surgeon to perform surgery at the hospitals. The doctors in question served on the committees that approved surgical privileges at Avera Sacred Heart and Lewis & Clark Specialty Hospital, both in Yankton, SD according to the lawsuits. The doctors are accused of extending Dr. Allen Sossan privileges to perform complex spine surgeries, despite knowing that Sossan had a history of performing unnecessary surgeries and unprofessional conduct. Both Avera Sacred Heart and Lewis & Clark also are defendants. The two federal cases are in addition to almost three dozen other lawsuits brought in state court by Sossan's former patients or loved ones of patients who died after undergoing surgery. The lawsuits have led to the release of dozens of documents that typically are not public. They include memos and board meeting minutes of hospitals and medical staffs that are kept secret under medical peer review rules.
Jonathan Ellis, USA Today 01/12/2015 | | Read Article: USA Today |
| Justice Department Seeks Dismissal of Twitter's Lawsuit | |
| | The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Twitter which alleges that the government violated the First Amendment by restricting the Twitter's ability to reveal information about national security requests for user data. The request for the partial dismissal of the lawsuit was filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Justice Department alleges that it did not violate the constitutional right to expression by imposing restrictions on Twitter and other companies.
Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post 01/10/2015 | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| Warning: That Tan Could Be Hazardous | |
| | A a review of the scientific evidence published last year estimated that tanning beds account for as many as 400,000 cases of skin cancer in the US each year, including 6,000 cases of melanoma, the deadliest form. And clinicians are concerned about the incidence rate of melanoma in women under 40, which has risen by a third since the early 1990s, according to data from the National Cancer Institute.
SABRINA TAVERNISE, The New York Times 01/12/2015 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
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