Possibly, yes, according to this study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study tested the following question: "Do patient outcomes differ between those treated by male and female physicians?" by examining a "nationally representative data of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries." It came to the following conclusion: " Elderly hospitalized patients treated by female internists have lower mortality and […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
Hat tip to Arthur Bryant who tells us that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a guidance urging judges and litigants to ensure that every protective order and agreement in litigation “specifically allow for disclosure” to the “CPSC and other government public health and safety agencies.” The CPSC guidance is here. Arthur has […]
The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it "is now making it easier and faster for health care professionals and patients to get the most up-to-date drug safety information on the more than 18,000 drugs available on our website. Our improved Drug Safety Labeling Changes Program enables FDA to post the latest safety information […]
The law firm Edelson PC has filed a RICO suit against a bunch of lawyers and law firms that regularly represent objectors to class-action settlements. The complaint, filed in federal district court in Chicago, is worth a look. Basically, it alleges that the defendant lawyers and law firms are using frivolous objections (and frivolous appeals from trial-court approvals […]
Here. An excerpt: To begin with, rather than facing punishment from President Trump, Carrier will garner a $7-million state tax break from Indiana over 10 years to keep 730 jobs in town, with no guarantee the jobs will even last that long. That’s a minuscule benefit for a company with a profit of $7.6 billion on […]
Click here or on the embedded video below to watch Prof. Christopher Yoo and federal transportation policy journalist Stephanie Beasley discuss the safety, cyber-security, and privacy of self-driving and other automated vehicles. Though there are few completely self-driving cars on the road, many cars today have some autonomous features and so pose some of the same safety, cyber-security, […]
Folks interested in my post earlier today about United's decision effectively to charge for using the overhead bin may also be interested in this: Until the late 1970's, the federal Civil Aeronautics Board pretty much set the routes and rates for commercial airlines and often directed the airlines how, if at all, to charge for amenities. […]
United Airlines is charging consumers for putting a bag in the overhead bin. Oh, wait, United is not really charging extra, it's just creating a level of service called "Basic Economy," in which the consumer pays the lowest fare but can't put a bag in the overhead bin. (Oh, and by the way, in Basic Economy, […]
We've posted several times about the head-injury settlement between NFL players and the NFL. Go here for instance. That settlement was approved over class members' objections by a federal district court in Philadelphia and by a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Petitions for a writ of certiorari are pending (go here and here), […]
Law prof David Noll has written The CFPB's Arbitration Rule: The Road Ahead. Here is the abstract: In May 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it intended to exercise its authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to bar consumer financial companies from invoking pre-dispute arbitration agreements to block consumer class actions. This comment considers the […]