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Victoria Byers did not drink alcohol. She did not abuse drugs. But when she was a teenager in foster care, several times a month, she would board a van at her group home and go to rehab. Byers couldn't figure out why she had to take drug tests and sit in group therapy sessions on addiction at So Cal Health Services, a clinic tucked in an office park in Riverside, California. "And I told them, you know, 'Why should I be here? I have no drug issue,' " said Byers, now a slow-to-smile 22-year-old. The director of Byers' group home...

In case readers missed it with all the coverage of the Trayvon Martin murder trial and the Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage and the Voting Rights Act, the US Supreme Court also made a ruling on lawsuits against drug companies for fraud, mislabeling, side effects and accidental death. From now on, 80 percent of all drugs are exempt from legal liability. In a 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s ruling and award for the victim of a pharmaceutical drug’s adverse reaction. According to the victim and the state courts, the drug caused a flesh-eating...

When Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) in April blamed ObamaCare for the fact that it was cutting some of its workers' hours, backers of the law mounted a furious backlash against the theater chain, among other things filling its Facebook page with boycott threats. Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/061913-660419-local-governments-cut-hours-to-avoid-obamacare-mandate.htm#ixzz2WiSoRbw2 Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

Several prominent medical associations have voiced opposition to a proposed gun control rule to increase the number of mental health records shared with the national background check system, saying it would only contribute to the stigma against mental illness. . . , a key proposition to add mental health records to a national background check database has been vociferously opposed by medical groups. Many voice concern that adding people deemed "mentally unfit" to the national database would increase the stigma of mental illness and dissuade many from seeking help. . . . . . . Unlike the Manchin-Toomey Bill to...

**SNIP** They also requested that the sentencing memo, however, be partially "under seal," or out of public view, as it "will contain personal sensitive details about [Jackson's] medical condition, as well as the medical condition of one of his family members," the Sun-Times reported. **SNIP** "I'm not bound by the sentencing guidelines," Judge Robert Wilkins said earlier in court, noting he cannot go beyond the maximum of five years. "The sentencing guidelines are advisory, and they are something I am bound to consider."

I believe we are moving toward two different health systems. Which tier do you think you will be in? In one system, patients will be able to see doctors promptly. They will talk to physicians by phone and email. They will have no difficulty scheduling needed surgery. If they have to go into a hospital, a "hospitalist" (who reports to them and not to the hospital administration) will be there to make sure their interests are looked after. They may even have an independent agency that reviews their medical records, goes with them when they meet with specialists and gives...

he Internal Revenue Service is now facing a class action lawsuit over allegations that it improperly accessed and stole the health records of some 10 million Americans, including medical records of all California state judges. According to a report by Courthousenews.com, an unnamed HIPAA-covered entity in California is suing the IRS, alleging that some 60 million medical records from 10 million patients were stolen by 15 IRS agents. The personal health information seized on March 11, 2011, included psychological counseling, gynecological counseling, sexual/drug treatment and other medical treatment data. "This is an action involving the corruption and abuse of power...

Consumers on Wednesday will finally get some answers about one of modern life’s most persistent mysteries: how much medical care actually costs. For the first time, the federal government will release the prices that hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the costs of services. In the District, George Washington University’s average bill for a patient on a ventilator was $115,000, while Providence...

(Reuters) - Anyone wanting to live longer and cut their risk of suffering from heart disease might want to consider getting a pet.

Got a survey on behalf of my physician. Now, I've been a patient for over 25 years. But from the sound of the questioning, he is considering closing his primary care operation and going to a concierge, cash-only physician operation ("Royal Pains" style, if you're familiar with the tv show). So, if he does, he'll have the cream of the local populace, and us who rely on private insurance and Medicare will be looking for another doctor. Just another thank-you to Obama-care.

PHILADELPHIA — Take five or 10 minutes, the professor said, and write down things that you love, like, need or enjoy. Now pair up with someone you don’t know and spend 20 minutes introducing yourself. Talk about whatever you want. But don’t mention anything that you wrote down. Try going on for a half-hour without a word about the most important things in life. Imagine a full day. “It might be difficult,” said instructor Robin Brennan. “That’s what this course is about. That is just a glimpse of what it is like for somebody who is LGBT” — lesbian, gay,...

NEW DELHI: It's a rebirth for 16-year-old Pakistani girl Madiha Tariq Sheikh, who feels India is her "own country" where she underwent a successful liver transplant surgery. Madiha, who hails from Lahore, was flown to India on February 3 after she slipped into coma due to acute liver failure and underwent a liver transplant surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital here. "This is my own country (India)...It has been four months now and I am missing my school. Inshallah, I will return home next week," Madiha told reporters here. Her brother Rizwan had donated a part of his liver to save...

New Delhi - Doctors going to the US for studies and then planning to settle down there will not find it easy to do so now. As per new guidelines recently finalised by the Centre, the Union Health Ministry will no longer issue them a ‘No Obligation to Return to India’ (NORI) certificate that allows them to settle in the US. The move aims to check brain drain in the medical profession in the country, said a senior Health Ministry official. He said it is ironic that while the health system in India is crippled due to the acute shortage...

**SNIP** “The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017. Not everybody is happy with the plan, however. Military personnel would see their annual Tricare premiums increase anywhere from 30 - 78 percent in the first year, followed by sharply increased premiums "ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels." "According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel...

The drugs are synthetic versions of resveratrol, found in red wine, an organic chemical believed to have an anti-aging effect, by boosting activity of a protein called SIRT1. GSK, the pharmaceutical firm, is testing them on people with particular medical conditions, namely Type II diabetes and psoriasis, a serious skin condition. David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard University, said aging might not actually be an "irreversible affliction". He said: “Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. "Things there are also looking promising. We're finding that aging isn't the irreversible affliction that...

When George W. Bush was stumping as a "compassionate conservative" in the closing days of the 2000 presidential campaign, he went to Florida and repeated a campaign promise to double the funding for the National Institutes of Health. "I will lead a medical moon shot to reach far beyond what seems possible today and discover new cures for age-old afflictions," Bush said. After he won Florida by a famously narrow margin -- and thus was elected president despite losing the nationwide popular vote -- Bush basically made good on his funding promise. In fiscal 2000, the NIH spent $15.415 billion;...

When Sean Recchi, a 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio, was told last March that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his wife Stephanie knew she had to get him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Stephanie’s father had been treated there 10 years earlier, and she and her family credited the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson with extending his life by at least eight years. Stephanie was then told by a billing clerk that the estimated cost of Sean’s visit — just to be examined for six days so a treatment plan could be devised — would be $48,900, due in...

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) — A local doctor took his own life while facing allegations he took pictures and videotaped his patients without their knowledge. Police searching his home say they found an extraordinary amount of evidence. Meghan McCorkell spoke with a patient who’s worried she’s a victim, too. Baltimore City police say they’ve contacted some of the victims but say the numbers coming forward could be huge. Police say Dr. Nikita Levy–a former OB/GYN at Johns Hopkins–took his own life inside his Towson home. It’s the same house where Baltimore City police served a search warrant. Inside they say they found...

Central NJ- My significant other bashed her hand this morning, it swelled bad and lots of pain. Went to work and it got worse, so went to the urgent care facility for an x-ray. She works for J&J and has very good insurance. When she arrived, she asked if they were able to x-ray on site, and was told yes. After filling out many pages of forms and handing over a $20 co-pay, she was taken to a room where a 'nurse' incorrectly attempted to take her blood pressure several times, tried taking her pulse with her thumb instead of...

Does a shadowy group of obscenely wealthy elitists control the world? Do men and women with enormous amounts of money really run the world from behind the scenes? The answer might surprise you. Most of us tend to think of money as a convenient way to conduct transactions, but the truth is that it also represents power and control. And today we live in a neo-fuedalist system in which the super rich pull all the strings. When I am talking about the ultra-wealthy, I am not just talking about people that have a few million dollars. As you will see...