April 1, 2022 Recent Legal News
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Tennessee
v Vaught
Trial
In a gross miscarriage of justice a criminal trial is starting on reckless homicide and adult abuse charges against RN RaDonda Vaught. She had the misfortune of making a medication error on a patient and injecting vecuronium bromide instead of Versed into a patient who died due to the error. She has admitted her error but also said there were other factors at the Vanderbilt University Hospital that contributed to the error. She should not be tried as a criminal for her accidental mistake. Furthering the miscarriage of justice she was found guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Over 120,000 signatures have been gotten on a petition recommending clemency in her sentencing.
In opposition to the former story LPN Christann Gainey pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. She failed to do the required neurological checks on a patient after a fall and the patient died. She then falsified the records to show she did the checks. She has no signatures for clemency.
Yale University's ED administrator Jamie Petrone had free reign to order equipment under $10,000. She had her employees order a lot of things under the amount and then sold the equipment to businesses and pocketed the money. She ws doing this since 2018. Top
US v Charmoli
Convicted
Dr. Scott Charmoli of Jackson, Wisconsin, was convicted by a federal jury of fraud for his doing dental procedures on patients that they did not need. This came to light after he retired and sold his practice. The new owners turned him in. He is also now being sued by over 100 people whose trial is waiting until the federal case is over.
US v England Associates dba London Health center
Settlement
The Georgia facility agreed to pay $400,000 to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for unreasonable rehab services.
US v Bauer
Sentenced
Dr. William Bauer of Port Clinton, Ohio was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay $464,000 in restitution plus $100,000 in community restitution. He had been convicted of 76 counts of fraud and and distribution of controlled substances.
Washington v Meraglia
Sued
The state has accused Dr. Tami Meraglia of billing patients for stem cell therapy without evidence that the treatment worked. The company US Stemology has claimed they are treating patients on a clinical trial but the state claims the IRB had significant conflicts of interest and never filed an IND application with the FDA.
US v Methodist Le Bonheur
USDC Middle Tennessee
The court has allowed the justice department to intervene in a whistleblower case against the facility. The person claimed that the facility paid over $400 million in kickbacks for referrals of cancer patients by allowing West Clinic to become part of Methodist and manage inpatient and outpatient adult care. This benefited the oncologists directly, according to the suit. The person also alleges that the payments resulted in $800 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare. West Clinic earlier paid the person in the suit and is not sued here. The judge refused to allow West Clinic to be part of this suit.
US v Joachim
Sentenced
Denis Joachim and his wife Donna were sentenced to 97 months and 12 months and one day respectively in prison for their medical reimbursement program. They also forfeited prior seized assets worth $6.3 million. They created and marketed a medical reimbursement program to pay employees for medical expenses, etc. However they kept all the money and never paid taxes on it.
US v Physicians
Settlement
Ten Texas physicians and one hospital administrator have agreed to pay a total of $1,680,000 to settle allegations that they were involved in a kickback scheme. They were accused of receiving kickbacks from eight management service organizations for ordering lab tests at various hospitals. The doctors are Tarar Brionez $85,006; Gary Goff $454,088;John Hierholzer $24,850; Bruce Maniet $175,436; Huy Chi Nguyen $211,821; Dung Chi Nguyen $211,721; Rakish Patel $174,539; Cuong Trinh $45,056; Randall Walker $60,898; and Michael Whiteley $52,015. Also Brett Markowitz, the CEO of Florida Rejuvenation Holdings agreed to pay $185,000 for allegedly paying kickbacks.
Louisiana Municipal Risk Management Agency v TeamHealth
Filed
TeamHealth is being sued again. This time for allegedly upcoding to get more money. They are accused of billing for midlevels as if done by physicians. (Also see below and story in Recent News in this issue)
US v Zager
Sentenced
Mark Zager MD of south Florida, was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud. He accepted kickbacks and lied to Medicare and financial services company.
US v Markovich
Sentenced
Brothers Jonathan and Daniel Markovich of Bal Harbour, Florida, were sentenced to 188 months and 97 months respectively in prison. The operated addiction treatment facilities and billed for services that were medically unnecessary.
US v Windham Eye Group, Woods, Kaufold
Settlement
The Windham, Connecticutt, eye group and its owners Drs. Dana Woods and William Kaufold have agreed to ay $192,699 to settle allegations that they hired an excluded individual as the practice administrator. During the time he was administrator they billed for Medicare patients and used the money to pay his salary.
US v Oladipo
Indicted
Dr. Olarewaju Olaipo, a Canton, Massachusetts, Orthopod, was indicted for fraud. He is accused of falsely billing by upcoding and billing for services not performed. Top
Florida v Dorn
Defense Verdict
An administrative court judge ruled in favor of Dr. Joseph Dorn of Tallahassee, Florida, on all counts. He was accused by the Department of Health of giving marijuana without a good faith exam. The records showed he did that and more. Dr. Dorn is now considering suing the Department for his time and lost income.
Forward Momentum, LLC v TeamHealth
Plaintiff
In this five year old case the plaintiffs, a group of about 3000 ED physicians, won but will get almost no money. They proved TeamHealth breached their contract and did not pay a portion of promised bonuses. They won $15 million but that is before costs and fees. They were supposed to be paid for supervised care provided by mid practitioners but were not and hid that from the physicians. (See above and Recent News this issue)
Darroux v Novant Health
Filed
A class action suit was filed against Novant Health for a "secret visitation fee" for ER visits. The facility charged $2000 and state this is a true CPT code.
Department of Labor v Kwiat Eye
and Laser Center
Filed
The New York facility and its owner Dr. David Kwiat are accused of retaliation against an employee who raised concerns about a lack of Covid protocols. After multiple complaints the employee was fired. The suit asks to enjoin the clinic from future violations and to pay damages and punis.
Cottage Health Systems v Kaiser
Permanente
Filed
The Santa Barbara, California Hospital system is not mincing words in their suit against Kaiser Permanente for paying less that what is owed. Most of the allegations stem from ED visits and some patients seeking post stabilization care.
SmileDirectClub v Tippins
9th Circuit
The company used a direct to consumer platform to sell clear aligners to orthodontic patients and at a lower price than traditional dentists charge. The dental board individuals were sued for unfounded harassment of the company and the district court dismissed the Sherman Act Claim and the company appealed. The 9th Circuit reversed stating regulatory board members could form anticompetitive conspiracies even when acting within their regulatory authority.
Spertus v Epic Systems
Filed
Dr. John Spertus, a cardiologist in Kansas City, Missouri, is suing Epic for stealing his copyrighted material and using it without a license. He offered a license to Epic but they refused and continued to use the material. He now wants recompense for past and future use. Top
Kromhardt v OBGYN Associates of
Iowa City, Mercy Hospital
Verdict
The parents of a baby who ws born with a crushed head due to forceps and vacuum delivery were awarded $97,4 million to care for the child with brain damage for the rest of his life. Watch for the amount to be lowered.
Patients v Broadbent
Filed
Approximately 50 patients have filed suit against Dr. David Broadbent, an OBGYN in Provo, Utah, for touching them inappropriately in the guise of a medical procedure. This will be a he said she said case.
Trabucco v Cogan
On Appeal
Urologist Dr. Arnaldo Trabecco was sued for malpractice after a patient died post-op who was represented by a bankruptcy attorney Jeffery Cogan who took over the case who had no idea about malpractice law but took on the case after the original malpractice attorney died. Prior to the case being over Dr. Trabecco sued Cogan for malicious prosecution and abuse of process. He won over $6 million in compensatory damages and another $1.7 million in punis. In prior litigation against Dr. Trabucco by his ex-wife and another physician who claimed defamation the attorney was Cogan. Dr. Trabucco won the federal malpractice case and the same case filed in state court was dismissed. The appeals court upheld the finding for malicious prosecution but not abuse of process. It remanded the case back to court for a new trial on damages. This is where a settlement came for the $8 million. Now Cogan has filed a new case against Dr. Trabucco alleging that the state court never had jurisdiction.
Rozon v Schottenstein
NY Ct App
Rozon saw Dr. Schottenstein for cataract surgery. There was a complication during the surgery where the posterior capsule tore and part of the the lens dropped thru it to the back of the eye. He then inserted the intraocular lens but it was wrong and he removed it. The patient was referred to a vitreoretinal surgeon to remove the lens part. That surgeon found after clearing the blood from the eye the the patient had a huge retinal tear. He attempted to fix this but was unsuccessful over many surgeries and the patient is blind in that eye. The patient sued the original surgeon for not seeing the small original tear that became the huge tear later. The jury awarded the patient $1.2 million and Schottenstein appealed. The appellate court affirmed the judgment. Top
Bonzani v Goshen Hospital
USDC ND Indiana
Dr. Robert Bonzani, an employed urologist at the hospital had a patient die and then had his privileges suspended. He signed a separation agreement with the hospital. The hospital reported the suspension and the resignation to the NPDB. Bonzani then sued for multiple claims including disparagement and defamation stating that the hospital submitted false and malicious statements about him. The court released all the claims except those related to the defamation. Dr. Bonzani may get discovery on whether the report was made with actual malice or whether the report would qualify for immunity under the HCQIA. The court also allowed the physician's complaint that the hospital breached its bylaws by unilaterally deciding to order a second peer review report from a known biased peer review company. Gee, I wonder who that could be. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the information presented.