Medical Records

Bill Moore of Pacific Grove was barely in his 20s when he found out he had cholesterol trouble. This was bad news for Moore because his father had died of a heart attack at 45 and because, as he told his doctor, Moore was eating all the right stuff. The doctor prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication, and a subsequent test showed the drug was working very well. Too well. His doctor was very surprised, Moore says. "I told him I must be unique. I must have a unique body composition."

For more than 2 1/2 years, Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer has sparked a flurry of headlines for celebrity tabloids. But it has also stripped the actress of her ability to seek treatment while maintaining her privacy, she said in an interview.

Tired of waiting for a response from the San Fernando Valley-based health clinic where an adult film actress recently tested positive for HIV, state health and safety investigators Wednesday performed a surprise inspection of the medical offices and this week will issue subpoenas demanding access to patient records.

California health regulators have connected 14 more people affiliated with UCLA Medical Center, including four physicians, to the improper viewing of celebrity medical records, bringing the number of current and former workers apparently implicated in the snooping scandal to 68. The additional violations came to light in a report by the California Department of Public Health, which was sent to the hospital Friday.

It didn't start with Farrah Fawcett's medical records landing in the National Enquirer or recent reports on a celebrity website that actor Patrick Swayze was near death. For decades, the tabloids have made a cottage industry of star ailments -- whether Dean Martin's declining health, Rock Hudson's AIDS diagnosis or Bob Hope's final years in and out of hospitals. "Bob Hope Says Last Goodbye," the Star reported months before the entertainer actually died. "While Doctors Battle to Save Her Life . . . Liz Boozes It Up In Hospital," screamed a famous National Enquirer headline from the 1990s.

Los Angeles resident Rose Cohen says all she wanted was a copy of her laboratory test results. She'd been given a routine blood panel during an annual visit to her gynecologist and wanted to show the report to her internist. The results had already been returned to her gynecologist from the lab, meaning they were now legally part of her medical record. (In California, a laboratory cannot give patients their results directly unless the patient's doctor has given consent.

It started out as just another Thanksgiving Day stomachache, a nagging pain that sharpened until it reverberated from California halfway around the world. When the ache in her lower right abdomen became excruciating, the twentysomething woman was rushed to a surgery center, where the doctor diagnosed a ruptured appendix. The woman needed an operation -- fast. But before the surgeon could wheel her into the operating theater, he had to find out whether the patient's insurance company would pay.

As the paparazzi trailed his movements, a top Los Angeles County coroner's investigator probing the death of Michael Jackson went to the pop star's longtime dermatologist's office Tuesday to collect additional medical records. Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter visited Dr. Arnold Klein's Beverly Hills office after the physician failed to turn over records he had promised to provide to authorities earlier this month, said Craig Harvey, operations chief for the coroner's office.

The U.S. attorney's office says it is moving to dismiss a case against a former UCLA Medical Center employee who died after pleading guilty to selling medical records of celebrities. Lawanda Jackson, 50, had been scheduled for sentencing Monday after pleading guilty in December to the felony charge of violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes.

One of the nation's few late-term abortion doctors was ordered Wednesday to turn over about 2,000 patient medical records to a Kansas grand jury investigating his practice. Abortion opponents hope that the records will lead to further criminal charges against Dr. George Tiller, who already is facing 19 misdemeanor counts stemming from late-second and third-trimester abortions at his clinic in Wichita. Tiller's lawyers say he scrupulously follows the law.