The Region - News from March 7, 1985

A Costa Mesa mail order medical laboratory and its medical director were sued by the state of New York on grounds that it could not tell the difference between human blood and cow blood. In an action similar to one filed against the same firm last year by the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance, New York Atty. Gen. Robert Abrams charged that Bio Health Centers of Costa Mesa and its medical director, Dr. Roger J. Palmieri of Newport Beach, charged $350 for a test that the firm said would reveal an individual’s allergies to nearly 200 commonly used foods, enabling the person to ease asthma, obesity, fatigue and other ailments by avoiding them. He said an investigator sent a sample of bovine blood to Bio Health and got back a report indicating allergy to 22 substances--including cow’s milk.