Department Of Health And Human Services U S

Los Angeles County supervisors expressed serious doubts Tuesday that Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital would pass a federal inspection next month that could determine its survival as a public hospital. Board members also accused county health officials of providing misleading information about recent reform efforts at the long-troubled Willowbrook facility. "I believe the guillotine's going to fall in 11 days," Supervisor Mike Antonovich said, echoing the dismay of other board members.

Fraudulent Medicare billings submitted by medical equipment suppliers in the Los Angeles area and south Florida are the target of a pilot program to be announced today by the Department of Health and Human Services.

As then-Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona was preparing a report on world health problems, he received a detailed outline from officials at the Department of Health and Human Services. It suggested that he praise President Bush's initiative against AIDS in poor countries, and highlight American efforts to rebuild public health infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, his report decried global pollution and violence against women.

Federal investigators have launched a criminal inquiry into problems with UCI Medical Center's failed liver transplant program. A spokesman for the university confirmed Saturday that the Orange hospital was served with a subpoena for documents by the FBI, which is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal regulators have told Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center that it will have one last chance to prove it has fixed lapses in care that repeatedly led to patient deaths. An unannounced top-to-bottom inspection will be held within 90 days -- months later than had been expected, the regulators said this week. If the long-troubled public hospital fails any portion, it stands to lose all of its federal funding.

The government agency charged with overseeing the quality of testing in medical laboratories has failed to ensure that even serious repeat deficiencies are cited and corrected, federal auditors said Tuesday. A 93-page report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, had not enforced the minimum standards required by law and could not properly judge whether a lab's quality had improved or worsened.

The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who helps lead a Christian pregnancy counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women." Dr. Eric Keroack, medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Mass.

Tom Daschle, once considered assured of breezing through his confirmation as secretary of Health and Human Services, soon will face tough questioning on Capitol Hill about underpaying his income taxes and his extensive work for clients in the healthcare industry, Republican aides said Saturday. GOP lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee are preparing to grill the former Senate majority leader about his failure to pay more than $128,000 in taxes for 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Congressional Democrats moved Monday to shore up Tom Daschle's nomination to become President Obama's secretary of Health and Human Services as the former senator apologized publicly for not paying more than $128,000 in income taxes. "The American people have high expectations for those of us who serve the public good. That's especially true when it comes to taxes.

The withdrawal of Tom Daschle's nomination Tuesday as secretary of Health and Human Services reflected White House recognition that his tax problems were igniting anger over an apparent double standard: that Washington insiders could be careless about their taxes while ordinary Americans had to sacrifice. As late as Monday night, the former Senate Democratic leader thought he could survive the disclosure that he only recently paid about $140,000 in back taxes.