On May 22, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in a case involving the notion of reasonable foreseeability in negligence actions. This judgment, written by the Chief Justice, confirms that tort law must compensate harm done on the basis of reasonable foresight, and must not be considered as insurance ...
A new Act which comes into force on 16 January 2009 imposes serious new penalties for directors, employers and employees who are convicted of a health and safety offence. The Bill received Royal Assent on 16 October 2008 and unlike the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, this has had a relatively easy journey through the parliamentary stages ...
CMS recently released new regulations intended to curb the ability of a physician to earn a profit on either the technical component (TC) or professional component (PC) of tests ordered by the physician, but performed by another party. The regulation is effective January 1, 2008 and applies to all Medicare-covered diagnostic tests including imaging and anatomic pathology, but excluding clinical laboratory tests ...
1 Framework 1.1 When did Germany first liberalise telecommunications networks and/or services? In 1989 the markets for telecommunications end-user devices, data and value added services, satellite and mobile communications were liberalised. The first mobile communications licence was awarded to a private entity in 1989 (Mannesmann Mobilfunk, now Vodafone) ...
Savings and expected recoveries of $43 billion were reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its Semiannual Report to Congress on December 14, 2007, for fiscal year 2007 (October 2006 – September 2007). This represents $2.18 billion in investigative recoveries, $1 ...
This paper will address the varying requirements for fair market value in transactions involving physicians and hospitals and other health care providers. The paper will first examine the Stark law and how and when transactions may satisfy Stark’s requirements for fair market value. Second, the use of fair market value for compliance with the federal Anti-Kickback statute will be addressed ...
The main characteristic of Third Generation services (3G) is to permit voice, data and image transmissions at substantially higher speeds than traditional technologies (like 2G and 2.5G). This capability makes 3G the appropriate standard for mobile multimedia applications and wireless broadband data transmissions, allowing subscribers to be connected without interruption to the mobile web ...
In the past few years China has introduced significant regulatory changes in an effort to modernize its pharmaceutical industry and bring it in line with international standards. These include reorganizing the former State Drug Administration into the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), thoroughly amending drug regulation and good manufacturing practice (GMP), enhancing intellectual property protection and changing drug import licensing ...
The purposes of this Health Care Alert are to: 1) summarize recently proposed federal regulations which will require physician disclosure of ownership interests in hospitals to patients; 2) remind health care providers of existing Texas laws requiring disclosure of ownership interests and 3) suggest best practices for disclosure of ownership interests ...
On Capitol Hill, U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation that would authorize the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve generic versions of biological products. Representative Henry Waxman (D, CA), of “Hatch-Waxman” fame, has introduced the “Access to Life Saving Medicine Act” (H.R. 1038) to advance this change to U.S. law. In introducing the legislation, Rep ...
A reputation for counterfeiting, poor quality control, ever-changing and inconsistent application of regulations and the challenges of ensuring that development does not unduly prejudice the welfare of the general population - this description of China’s pharmaceutical industry is representative of much that is good, bad and challenging in China’s recent regulatory and economic development ...
Intellectual Property is important. Although never at the forefront of our thinking (IP Lawyers aside) the role of patents, trade marks and copyright in shaping the business and leisure aspects of our lives is immense ...
On 26 October 2006, the Antitrust Court issued a decision, from a defense of competition perspective, in connection with the legality of the behaviors between Voissnet S.A. ('Voissnet') and Compañía de Telecomunicaciones de Chile S.A. ('CTC-CHILE'). Voissnet, a company that provides telecommunication services consisting of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), accused CTC-CHILE of performing acts against free competition ...
He may be a knight, one of the most successful music artists and a noted viniculturalist, but Sir Cliff Richard is not resting on his laurels. Add legal reform campaigner to this list as the Peter Pan of Pop leads the quest to change UK copyright law.Copyright can be deceptively simple on the face of it, but scratch the surface and you reveal the complexity of co-existing legal rights. Take Sir Cliff's 1959 best selling single 'Living Doll' ...
Pursuant to the Act on Drugs, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic has specified in annexes to this Decree details on forms to be used for prescriptions of drugs and medical aids. By this Decree, the Ministry also has set the sample forms of medical prescription, special medical prescription, medical reference, and extract from medical prescription, order and special order ...
The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) has proposed new regulations for rural onshore low stress pipelines and rural onshore gathering lines. Although PHMSA has been anticipating further regulation of these types of lines for the past few years, the Agency acknowledges that the proposed rule is a direct response to legislative and media scrutiny of recent incidents that occurred in the Alaska Prudhoe Bay field ...
The House of Lords has clarified what makes a message sent by means of a public electronic communications network "grossly offensive" and therefore capable of amounting to a crime under the Communications Act 2003 ("Act") ...
As the poultry farming crisis looms and countries are on the lookout for outbreaks of infection, scientists are closely following the evolution of the virus, which is moving to new sources of infection.Before a crisis is on our doorstep, businesses should prepare themselves for the consequences of a high rate of absenteeism. Without exaggerating the risks, they should adopt preventive strategies and become aware of the legal ins and outs of their actions ...
Interdisciplinary collaborations and partnering across the medical research and life sciences sectors are becoming increasingly common. Large corporations with good industry reputations and large research budgets are seeking to collaborate with smaller companies developing next-generation products. Equally, smaller companies are coming together to share complementary know-how and technologies and to work together in the global marketplace ...
ALERT Hospital May Be Excluded For Physician Recruiting On May 8, 2006 the OIG announced that it intends to exclude San Diego-based Alvarado Hospital from participation in Medicare, Medicaid and all other federal health care programs because of payments the Hospital made under relocation agreements involving placement of newly-recruited physicians in established physician practices ...
Certificate of Need Strategies for New Nursing Home Beds Special Population Beds are Re-Approved At its March 2006 meeting, the Michigan Certificate of Need (“CON”) Commission took action to re-approve several state-wide pools of nursing home beds that are set aside to serve special populations, including: Alzheimer’s Use 60 beds Hospice 30 beds Religious Use 20 beds The Commission reserved 22 special population beds on a non-specified basis for future use ...