The director of the Centers for Disease and Prevention Dr. Julie L. Gerberding warned that the deadly flu-like illness known as SARS, for severe acute respiratory syndrome, could be spread very easily through close contact and expressed deep concern that it might also be spread through the air or on contaminated objects.
“The potential for infecting [...]

Federal officials are probing whether HealthSouth Corp., the nation’s largest operator of rehabilitation hospitals, cheated Medicare out of tens of millions of dollars or more, people involved in the case said.
The investigation of possible Medicare fraud is the latest blow to HealthSouth, which is the subject of an accounting scandal set off by a [...]

The Laser Vision Institute, based in Lake Worth, Fla., and Cincinnati-based LCA Vision Inc., which did business as LasikPlus, agreed to settle federal charges that they mislead the public when their advertisements promised life without glasses and perfect vision.
The Federal Trade Commission said that the firms did not have scientific evidence to support claims that [...]

A New York jury awarded more than $47 million to Robert Crouteau, a boilermaker who worked as a contractor for two New York utilities, who was diagnosed with cancer by exposure to asbestos, attorneys for the plaintiff said. Crouteau was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May of 2001.
The jury found both Consolidated Edision Inc. and KeySpan [...]

Federal health officials ordered that no one with a history of heart disease be vaccinated against small pox, after a Maryland woman died of a heart attack and six others became ill after being inoculated.
The seven had well documented cases of heart disease, but heart problems are not known to put people at greater [...]

Illinois Circuit Court Judge Nicholas G. Byron found Philip Morris Inc. liable in a class-action consumer fraud lawsuit and ordered the company to pay $10.1 billion for failing to inform consumers that its “light” cigarettes were not less harmful than regular cigarettes.
Philip Morris said it would appeal the verdict. Byron said the company would [...]

Past and present employees of Household International, including Melissa Rutland-Drury, a former branch sales manager, submitted sworn statements about destruction of consumer-loan documents. Rutland-Drury’s declaration remains under seal at the insistence of Household lawyers.
Reports of document shredding has investors on the brink and Wall Street analysts on who are following the planned $14 billion acquisition [...]

Children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques may have an increased risk for birth defects, which include the formation of the bladder outside the body known as the cloacal-bladder exstrophy-epispadias complex, a preliminary study has found.
But the researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s in Baltimore, Maryland, indicated their findings are preliminary and should not dissuade [...]

UnumProvident Corp., the nation’s largest disability insurer, was fined $1 million by Georgia insurance regulators after investigating complaints about the company’s claims handling procedures.
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said in a statement that his agency’s investigation showed UnumProvident had a corporate mentality of “looking for every technical legal way to avoid paying a claim.”
UnumProvident is [...]

Texas jury cleared Bayer, the German drug company, of liability in a $560 million lawsuit that accused the company of ignoring research linking the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol to dozens of deaths. The lawsuit was filed in behalf of Hollis Haltom, an 82-year-old retired oil company engineer who said he fell seriously ill after taking Baycol.
The [...]