Health Care Law Blog: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

A Taxonomy of Legal Blogs

The taxonomy of legal blogs is a great resource to see what is happening in and around the legal blogging world. The efforts by this 3L from Ohio, Ian Best, are impressive. Ian, if you are looking for a job close to Ohio after graduation and want an interivew -- give me a call.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Lets Go Mountaineers!

I've been incredibly busy at work these days and haven't had the chance to post much over the last couple of weeks. However, I can't miss a quick post to cheer on and support the West Virginia Mountaineers today as they enter the second game of the NCAA Tournament against the 14 seed Northwestern State Demons.

I'm just hoping that they pittsnogle the horns off the demons and move on to face the winner of NC State vs. Texas. If any group of seniors deserve a return to tops of the tournament -- it's this group.

For more interesting factoids on the Mountaineers and what it "really means" to get Pittsnogled or some background on West Virginia's favorite German son, check out this post at Deadspin.

For my own bit of WVU basketball trivia -- what West Virginia town is the hometown of not one - but two - West Virginia Mountaineers. Hint: It's my hometown.

UPDATE: Congrats to the Mountaineers who now advance on to the Sweet 16 with the 67-54 victory today. The Mountaineers will take on the Texas Longhorns. What about Darris Nichols' banked in 3 to end the half. This group has put together some great highlights. The comparisons to the Jerry West days started to show up in the news articles after today's win. However, back in the 1950s you didn't hear people saying you were just "Jerry Wested."

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Delish-ful Charleston Fire

Photos from the fire in downtown Charleston today. I was driving with my family along MacCorkle Avenue around noon and we noticed the smoke downtown. My son and I went down to investigate on our way to the library.

The fire was next door to Delish, one of our favorite places to eat. I talked to a couple of the guys who work at Delish and they said it started next door in an abandon building and the smoke started coming through the wall on the wrap side of Delish. Based on the intensity of the flames and the amount of water they were putting on the fire I'm sure that Delish will have a lot of damage. Our thoughts are with the Virgil, the owner and his employees.

Update: Rick Lee has some more shots of the fire in downtown Charleston this weekend. I was glad to read the morning paper that there does not appear to be as much damage to the restaurant side of Delish as I had expected. I think Virgil needs to add a new dish -- "smoked satay" or "smoked udon."

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

TinyURL.com

I noticed a health lawyer colleague of mine using the tinyurl feature in an email. I previously saw something about this tool -- but hadn't explored tinyurl.com and how the feature works.

I often send people web links via email and the tinyurl feature will come in handy. I thought I would pass along the tip.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Second Criminal Conviction Under HIPAA

Press Release issued by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announces conviction of person under HIPAA for wrongfully using a unique health identifiers with the intent to sell individually identifiable health information for personal gain. Liz Ramirez, a former physician office employee, worked for a physician office under contract to provide physicals and medical treatment to FBI agents. Ms. Ramirez was caught selling personal and medical information about a particular FBI agent to a confidential source (posing as a drug trafficker wanting information on the FBI agent)for $500.

This is the second known criminal conviction of a person profiting from the disclosure of confidential medical record information under HIPAA.

Tip provided by Alan Goldberg.

Monday, March 06, 2006

The West Virginia Business Blog

While visiting the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce website I noticed a new Blogger blog hosted by the Chamber. It's called the West Virginia Business Blog. It looks like it has been active since the Summer of 2005.

I'm glad to see the Chamber leveraging blogs as a way to get out its message to West Virginians and others interested in business for West Virginia. I've added it to my blogroll at the right and look forward to watching the posts by the Chamber.

Colorful Spectrum of Blawg Review #47

Eh Nonymous, an anonymous Philadelphia lawyer, covers a broad spectrum of colorful law related posts in this week's Blawg Review #47 at Unused and Probably Unusable.

Didn't mama always warned you about Philadelphia lawyers? Direct from the Philadelphia Bar Association:

It's hard to talk about Philadelphia without talking about Philadelphia lawyers. And the Bar Association has forever been associated with the term "Philadelphia Lawyer." The term actually predates the nation's founding, having its origins in 1735 when Philadelphia lawyer Andrew Hamilton traveled to New York City to defend a poor printer, John Peter Zenger. Hamilton actually acted pro bono and accepted a case that no New York lawyer would take on. Defending Zenger against charges of sedition brought by the crown, Hamilton won the case and, in so doing, established the concept of freedom of the press more than 50 years before the First Amendment.

It was said that when the jury returned its verdict those in the galleries exclaimed: "Only a Philadelphia lawyer could have done it!" Ever since then the term "Philadelphia lawyer" has come to characterize a particularly adept lawyer: more clever; craftier; a lawyer who will find a way to prevail for his/her client.

Tags: Blawg Review, blawg, law, philadelphia lawyer, philadelphia

Thursday, March 02, 2006

New Carnival: Health Wonk Review

A new carnival - "Health Wonk Review" is making the rounds.

It's described as " a biweekly (or so) compendium of the best of the health policy blogs." Submissions from health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers will be focus of the the new carnival. This new blog effort was co-founded by Joseph Paduda at Managed Care Matters and Matthew Holt at The Health Care Blog.

If you are interested in submitting posts or hosting here are the basic guidelines. The first installment was a hit and I plan to check out this new health care focused blog summary on a regular basis. I might even take a turn at hosting after a fun experience with Blawg Review. Also plans are in the works for a HWR website.

The upcoming hosting schedule:

March 7: Matthew Holt
March 22: Kate Steadman at Healthy Policy
April 5: David Williams at Health Business Blog