Big sky trial

Insurance broker-agents in California no longer are required to send customers annual privacy notice forms permitting them to opt-out of information sharing.  Insurance broker-agents thus may now use customers’ nonpublic personal information to shop around for better policies at renewal.  On November 4, 2010, California’s Office of Administrative Law repealed California Code of Regulations(C.C.R.) § 2689.8(c)(3), upon the recommendation of the California Department of Insurance and Insurance Commissioner (and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate) Steve Poizner.  The move finally harmonizes C.C.R. § 2689.8 with Financial Code § 4056.5(b), effective July 1, 2004, which expressly permits broker-agents to use nonpublic personal information without obtaining prior customer consent to shop for new policies on renewal, and should reduce the paperwork and expense broker-agents previously incurred in mailing annual opt-out notices to all customers.   https://legalnewtrends.blogspo

The operator of fan Web sites for pop stars Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Rihanna and Demi Lovato agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle federal charges that the Artist Arena, a company that operates fan web sites for pop stars like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, agreed to settle federal charges that the sites had violated a children’s privacy protection law. Source: New York Times sites had illegally collected personal information about thousands of children, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.  Artist Arena, a company that operates fan web sites for pop stars like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, agreed to settle federal charges that the sites had violated a children’s privacy protection law.  In a complaint, the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Artist Arena, the operator of the sites, had violated a children’s online privacy rule by collecting personal details — like the names, e-mail addresses, street addresses and cellphone numbers — of about

According to a study published by the Journal of American Medical Association, the U.S. is facing a dramatic decrease in the number of available Emergency Departments.  Researchers at the University of California San Francisco found that from 1990 to 2009, the number of hospitals with Emergency Departments declined 27%.  The study found that safety-net hospitals and for-profit hospitals in competitive markets faced increase pressure due to low profit margin and a high proportion of low-income patients.  Sandra Schneider, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, says “The financial stress is largely driven by growing ranks of underinsured and uninsured and underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid.”  Since federal mandate requires hospitals to see all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, law Medicaid reimbursement rates are a big factor pushing some hospitals to close. H

Massachusetts General Hospital and its physicians organization have agreed to pay the federal government $1,000,000 to settle claims related to a worker leaving personal health documents on the subway.  The hospital also agreed to develop a comprehensive new privacy policy to prevent patient information from being compromised in the future, and to provide training to workers. The hospital must remit semi-annual compliance reports to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services for the next three years.  “To avoid enforcement penalties, covered entities must ensure they are always in compliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules,” HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Georgina Verdugo said in a statement. “ A robust compliance program includes employee training, vigilant implementation of policies and procedures, regular internal audits, and a prompt action plan to respond to incidents.  The settlement stems from a 2009 complaint from a patient whose personal health inform