A HEALTHy serving of corned beef and cabbage. Happy St. Paddy’s Day

2009 Florida House Bill No. 1041 111th Regular Session (SUMMARY - NETSCAN)
Emergency Services/Medicaid Managed Care Plans; Provides conditions for provision of services to enrollees of managed care plans by certain hospitals; provides time limits & rate structures for payment of claims to certain hospitals for services or goods by provider; revises requirements for reimbursement for provision of emergency services & care under health maintenance contract; provides for construction; provides applicability. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2009

2009 FL H.B. 1041 (NS)
2009 Florida Senate Bill No. 2192 111th Regular Session (SUMMARY - NETSCAN)
Florida Consumer & Small Business Arbitration Act; Creates said act. Provides that the act does not apply to certain insurance policies and certain arbitrations. Provides that mandatory binding arbitration is void and unenforceable except as otherwise provided by federal law. Provides proceedings to compel arbitration. Provides for the appointment of arbitrators and umpires. Authorizes an arbitrator or umpire to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and production of documents, etc.

2009 FL S.B. 2192 (NS)
2009 Florida Senate Bill No. 2158 111th Regular Session (SUMMARY - NETSCAN)
Pub. Rec./Claims Files and Medical Records; Provides an exemption from public records requirements for specified claims files, medical records that are part of a claims file, information relating to the medical condition or medical status of a claimant, and records pertaining to matters reasonably encompassed in privileged attorney-client communications of the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association. Provides for limited duration of the exemption for claims files, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/20009

2009 FL S.B. 2158 (NS)
2009 Florida House Bill No. 1385 111th Regular Session (SUMMARY - NETSCAN)
Children with Disabilities; Requires certain licensing boards to require continuing education on developmental disabilities for certain licensees & certificateholders; provides health insurance coverage & coverage under health maintenance contract for individuals with developmental disabilities; authorizes students who receive certain services under VPK to receive John M. McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities, etc. EFFECTIVE DATE: 07/01/2009
2009 FL H.B. 1385 (NS)

March 16, 2009
NEW FDA DECREE COVERS ALL CARDINAL 303 INFUSION PUMPS,
United States v. Undetermined Quantities of Boxes, 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 1, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
The federal government has expanded a 2007 consent decree requiring medical device maker Cardinal Health 303 Inc. to bring its Alaris signature edition line of infusion pumps in compliance with Food and Drug Administration manufacturing and distribution standards to include all its infusion pump models.The revised consent decree was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.


March 16, 2009 HIP IMPLANT LAWSUIT AGAINST STRYKER CORP. IS PREEMPTED,
Horowitz v. Stryker Corp., 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 2, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
A Brooklyn, N.Y., federal judge granted Stryker Corp.'s motion to dismiss a plaintiff's lawsuit for failure to warn of the Trident artificial hip system--the Trident ceramic acetabular hip system she received two years earlier might emit constant creaks and ticking. The court cited the failure to show that her action "parallels" existing Food and Drug Administration standards for the device.

March 16, 2009 CONGRESS LOOKS TO UNDO MEDICAL DEVICE RULING, 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 3, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Riegel et al. v. Medtronic Inc. that a 32-year- old federal regulation shields medical device makers from liability under state laws in suits claiming injury from devices that received Food and Drug Administration approval. Congress has introduced joint bills to reverse key U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred patients injured by medical devices from suing for damages in state court.

March 16, 2009 DEVICE SUIT RETURNED TO IND. STATE COURT; SALES REP AT ISSUE, Gibbs v. I-Flow Inc., 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 4, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
An Indiana federal judge, U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence rejected defendant I-Flow Corp.'s argument that a product liability suit should stay in federal court because the sales representative was fraudulently joined. Timothy Gibbs sued I-Flow, a pain pump maker, and sales representative Barbara Rowland in the Hendricks County Superior Court in March 2008. The federal court has returned the product liability suit against the defendants to state court, finding crucial questions over the liability of the defendant company's sales agent.

DEVICE MAKER DENIES NEGLIGENCE IN TEXAS PEDICLE SCREW SUIT, Thompson v. Allez Spine, 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 5, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter March 16, 2009
Medical device maker Allez Spine has denied a Texas woman's claims that its failure to properly design and manufacture a spinal fixation screw forced her to endure two corrective operations and permanently diminished her physical agility. The company says the "learned intermediary" doctrine shields it from plaintiff Penny Thompson's claims because it provided all warnings regarding the risks associated with the device to the surgeon who recommended it to her.

March 16, 2009 DAUGHTER SAYS FAULTY DEFIBRILLATOR KILLED PA. MAN, Cathcart v. St. Jude Med., 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 6, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
Two Pennsylvania sisters have sued for more than $825,000 in damages in a federal court wrongful-death suit, alleging their father died after receiving dozens of unwarranted electric shocks from a faulty implantable defibrillator made by St. Jude Medical Inc. The lawsuit alleges Harry Welshans died in February 2007 because his St. Jude model V-193 defibrillator delivered unneeded shocks to his heart at a rate of about one every two minutes in the hours before his death.

March 16, 2009 MEDTRONIC SAYS SPINAL DEVICE SUIT IS PREEMPTED, Lovett v. Medtronic, 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 7, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter
Arguing the suit is barred because it suggests that Medtronic follow design, labeling and manufacturing standards other than those established for the device through the Food and Drug Administration's premarket approval process, Medtronic Inc. has asked a Nevada federal judge to dismiss as federally preempted a suit by a woman who says she was injured when her implanted spinal stimulator stopped working and required removal after two years.

Product Defect (Hip Implant): STRYKER SUED OVER SQUEAKY HIP IMPLANT, Gelber v. Stryker Corp., 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 8, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter March 16, 2009
Michigan-based Stryker removed to New York federal court a product liability and breach-of-warranty lawsuit filed by Jeannette Gelber who says she has been plagued by squeaking noises from her Trident artificial hip since shortly after it was implanted. Stryker removed from the Rockland County Supreme Court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Feb. 13, citing diversity jurisdiction.

ARTHREX IS SUED OVER INJURIES CAUSED BY TRACTION DEVICE, Thornton v. Arthrex Inc., 16 No. 2 Andrews Med. Devices Litig. Rep. 9, Andrews Medical Devices Litigation Reporter March 16, 2009
Arguing Patricia Thornton's personal injury suit should be dismissed because the assembly device (an Arthrex modular joint distractor) featured a state-of-the- art design approved by the Food and Drug Administration, medical device maker Arthrex Inc. has moved to dismiss the lawsuit filed after the Ohio health care worker was allegedly injured after she was struck by part of a traction assembly device hanging over a patient's bed.

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