MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'department of justice'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:34:50 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159197&cid=t_236274_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F08%2F25%2Fusing-tragedy-to-justify-mental-health-services-in-delaware%2F In a letter that could’ve been written in virtually any state by any National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) representative, NAMI Delaware executive director Matthew Stehl and president Mary Berger recently wrote an op-ed for Delaware’s leading newspaper, The News Journal. In the opinion piece, Stehl and Berger decry the lack of adequate funding for mental illness treatment in the state. In a period of economic recession, state-funded health and human services are usually the first to undergo cuts. But it’s an especially relevant issue in Delaware, because the U.S. Department of Justice struck an agreement with the state to ensure it improves its mental health services for its indigent and poor residents who need mental health services. All of which is good. I’m ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159197 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:55:45 +0100 5159197 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813262&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5w7FGpVVr_Y%2F By Jim HarperThis morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law had a hearing entitled: “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” Among the witnesses was Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein from the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Weinstein made a gallingly Orwellian pitch: If you want privacy protection, increase government surveillance. From his written statement: ISPs may choose not to store IP records, may adopt a network architecture that frustrates their ability to track IP assignments and network transactions back to a specific account or device, or may store records for only a very short period of time. In many cases, these records are the only e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813262 Tue, 10 May 2011 17:22:27 +0100 4813262 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4642592&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-government-is-not-keeping-up-with-medical-guidelines%2F2011.03.28 In case people are wondering if our governmental overlords really care about the latest and greatest treatment guidelines published by our professional health care organizations, take note. CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is still using guidelines for defibrillator implantation from 2005 to justify payment for services in their national coverage decision, whereas the latest guidelines published by the Heart Rhythm Society published in 2008 carry signficiant differences in their recommendations for appropriate patients for this technology. So which set of guidelines should doctors use? The answer is obvious: if you use the latest data to decide who should receive a defibrillator, you might be subject to a Department of Justice investigation. So much for using updated guideli... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4642592 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:00:00 +0100 4642592 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4566340&cid=t_236274_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FGtQ9Mzf-Fi0%2F One of the more widely visited web sites for information on numerous drugs is PubMed Health, which caters to consumers and is run by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. The site boasts that it provides up-to-date info on “diseases, conditions, injuries, drugs, supplements, treatment options, and healthy living,” along with a focus on comparative effectiveness (see this). Last week, however, the site blundered by continuing to provide info about how to use unapproved drugs that had never had undergone review by the FDA, which announced a new effort to have these meds withdrawn. Then, the site appeared to back date its revisions when the goof was brought to its attention (lo... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4566340 Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:08:12 +0100 4566340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455252&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8cho0RTmMwM%2F By David Boaz"Google is under siege in Washington like never before," Politico reports. In an interview with POLITICO, a Google spokesman argued that a cabal of antitrust lawyers, lobbyists and public relations firms is conspiring against the Internet search giant. The mastermind? Google says it’s Microsoft. Maybe it’s irony, or maybe it’s payback. In the 1990s, Microsoft was the tech industry wunderkind that got too big for its britches — and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, then an executive at Sun Microsystems and later Novell, helped knock the software titan down a peg by providing evidence in the government’s antitrust case against it. . . . But there are also increasing calls from some Silicon Valley competitors and Washington-based public interest groups for the Justice Departm... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455252 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:57:00 +0100 4455252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394748&cid=t_236274_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FpXbefPvyX2U%2F As drugmakers look to do more business in more foreign markets, corruption is always an issue, yes? That’s particularly true now that the US Justice Department - along with the US Securities and Exchange Commission - is paying closer attention to interactions between the pharmaceutical industry and foreign governments. Over the past year, several big drugmakers have received letters as the federal government seeks to uncover any violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids US companies from bribing foreign government officials. One aspect of the probe reportedly involves exploring whether drugmakers and clinical trial organizations pay off third-party investigators to finesse research data. A report by the HHS Office of Inspector General noted that eight percent of... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394748 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:01:22 +0100 4394748 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3635743&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fprovide-healthcare-get-investigated%2F2010.06.07 When I started medical school, if someone had told me that providing healthcare to my patients would be grounds for a Department of Justice inquiry into the care I delivered, I would have laughed in their face. But the government’s desperate financial times require desperate measures. From the Report on Medicare Compliance: Both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) are focusing investigations on Medicare billing for implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) surgery. The reimbursement rate for ICD surgery is one of the higher dollar Medicare Severity Diagnosis Related Groupings (MS-DRG). The DOJ’s investigation is focusing on both medical necessity and MS-DRG coding validation issues, while the RACs are currently only conducting MS-DRG validation re... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3635743 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:00:00 +0100 3635743 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515492&cid=t_236274_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Frisks-and-flaws-nhin-development Everyone who cares about the privacy of their PHI should read Latanya Sweeney’s written testimony on the NHIN flaws (PDF).   Her criticisms of the proposed models National Health Information Network are sorely needed.   HHS has been charging ahead full steam without paying attention to the risks and flaws of the models they are funding.   (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515492 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:23:09 +0100 3515492 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908568&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOX92-z34s3o%2F The Department of Justice just invalidated a move by the residents of Kinston, North Carolina, to have non-partisan local elections. Rationale? The Justice Department’s ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their “candidates of choice” – identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black. The department ruled that white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters’ right to elect the candidates they want. This, coming from the same Department of Justice officials that wouldn’t know ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908568 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:15:34 +0100 2908568 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908580&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fe04nnnl7Glw%2F As my colleague David Rittgers notes below, the announcement by the Department of Justice that it will no longer seek to arrest medical marijuana users is a breakthrough for common sense in federal drug policy. It is bizarre that it takes a major policy announcement to spell out what a waste of police and court time it is to investigate the ill people who use medical marijuana. Historians will surely look back on this period and ponder how our government could have seriously embraced the opposite policy, in the same way we look back at the strange days of alcohol prohibition. The Obama administration should be taking much bolder steps to stop the criminalization of drug use more generally. More and more people have come to recognize that the drug war has been given a fair chance to work, b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908580 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:07 +0100 2908580 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908582&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3U5JDDRgz0g%2F The Department of Justice is changing its long-standing policy of ignoring state laws that allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes. This federalism question played out several years ago in the Supreme Court in the Raich case; Cato’s amicus brief is available here. Cato hosted Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project in March, and you can view the event here. Glenn Greenwald wrote an influential study for Cato on the successful decriminalization of drugs in Portugal. Greenwald notes that he gets more invitations to speak on the subject now than he did when it was published. A good first step. Fourteen states permit medical marijuana dispensaries; I suspect more are on the way now that this hurdle has been cleared. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908582 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:44:52 +0100 2908582 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2380723&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2KQzpZhQZ6E%2F Unlike with wiretaps, law enforcement agents are not required by federal statutes to obtain search warrants before employing pen registers or trap and trace devices. These devices record non-content information regarding telephone calls and Internet communications. (Of course, “non-content information” has quite a bit of content - who is talking to whom, how often, and for how long.) The Electronic Privacy Information Center points out in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that the Department of Justice has consistently failed to report on the use of pen registers and trap and trace devices as required by law: The Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires the Attorney General to “annually report to Congress on the number of pen regis... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2380723 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:37:48 +0100 2380723 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2375846&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F87wxu-u4z3E%2F I write this from the Bar Members’ line waiting to be let into the Supreme Court courtroom for the final argument of the term. Today the Court hears Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No.1 (”NAMUDNO”) v. Holder. This is a challenge to the controversial Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires, among other things, any change in election administration in certain states and counties to be “precleared” by the Department of Justice in Washington. This is, of course, a remnant of the Jim Crow era, and southern states’ massive resistance to attempts to enforce the 15th Amendment. In 1965, Congress included Section 5 — which would otherwise be an unconstitutional infringement on peoples’ right to run their own elections locally &#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2375846 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:49:16 +0100 2375846 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2364933&cid=t_236274_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgHbB7-QQz7Q%2F Though I’m not a Virginia resident or voter, nor a donor to politicians, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell (whose party affiliation I’m not aware of) has added me to his email list. His name is similar to a past roommate, and that affinity has caused me to open more of his emails than I ordinarily would. Today’s is worth writing about: It’s a political candidate transparently trying to scare voters and use their fear for fundraising. Dear Jim, Terror suspects could be headed to Virginia… With the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay the federal government must find new locations in which to house and try the roughly 240 terrorist suspects currently held 90 miles from our shores. Recent news reports indicate that the Department of Justice ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2364933 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:47:22 +0100 2364933 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2349567&cid=t_236274_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FAyRU0w0YVC0%2F This is another of my clippings to/for myself in re: the Bush years. I have no idea how I am going to cobble all of this together with my thoughts, but at least I can assemble some pieces. Editorial - The Torturers’ Manifesto - NYTimes.com: To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush’s Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity. Their language is the precise bureaucratese favored by dungeon masters throughout history. They detail how to fashion a collar for slamming a prisoner against a wall, exactly how many days he can be kept without sleep (11), and what, specifically, he should be told before being locked in a box with an insect — all to stop just short of having a jury decide that these acts violate the laws against tortu... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2349567 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:25:36 +0100 2349567 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=919094&cid=t_236274_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F164175396%2F Here a conflict. There a conflict. Everywhere a conflict of interest. That’s one of the central themes in the controversy over the Provenge prostate-cancer vaccine. And the latest allegation is aimed at the Justice Department by CareToLive, a non-profit group that was formed recently to force the agency to approve the vaccine. What’s the conflict? The Justice Department simultaneously represents the FDA, the FDA commish, an FDA division head and an FDA panel member in what the group charges is a conspiracy forged by individuals who may wind up testifying against one another. The Dendreon product was recommended for approval last spring by an FDA panel, but was then delayed after two panel members wrote FDA commish Andy von Eschenbach urging a go-slow approach. CareToLive, which... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=919094 Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:38:16 +0100 919094