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Michigan v Barma
Sentenced
Dr. Michael Barma set off a bomb in McLaren Port Huron Hospital and admitted to it. He was sentenced to 93 days in jail and three years probation. The medical board has acted against his license.
Texas v Henslee
Guilty
Lydia Henslee pleaded guilty of illegally obtaining information from a computer on patients and repackaged for false prescriptions and fake DME orders. She has agreed to forfeit $253,520 in illegal gains.
Indiana v Sneed
Indicted
Connie Sneed is a LPN who posted on Facebook that she stopped the oxygen on a patient and he died. She is being charged with practicing medicine without a license. She had no doctors order to either start the oxygen or to remove it. Top
US v Multiple Defendants
Sentenced
Fourteen defendants were sentenced for their role in bribery at the Forest Park Medical Center in Texas. They made sure patients were billed for inpatient prices even if they got outpatient treatments. They then wrote off the the patient discounts. They also paid physicians to send their patients to the hospital. Hospital manager Alan Beauchamp testified for the feds and got 63 months in prison. Wilton Burt, the managing partner of the hospital, got 150 months. Jackson Jacob , the owner of shell companies for the bribes, 96 months. Dr. Douglas Won, spinal surgeon, 60 months. Dr. Michael Rimlawi, spinal surgeon, 90 months. Dr. Shawn Henry, spinal surgeon, 90 months. Iris Forrest, nurse recruiter, 36 months. Israel Ortez, founder of Kortmed which did the worker comp, 12 months. Dr. Wade Barker, bariatric surgeon, 60 months. Andrew Hillman, co-owner of Hospital Business Concepts a surgeon brokerage, 60 months. Dr. Frank Gonzalez, chiropractor who referred patients for bribes, 21 months. Semyon Narosov, co-owner of Hospital Business Concepts, 5 1 months. Dr. Richard Toussaint, Jr., anesthesiologist, 60 months. Carli Hempel got three years probation. Kelly Loter and Andrea Smith also got probation. The group was also charged with paying $82.9 million in restitution.
US v Sabet
Indicted
John Sabet, the owner of pharmacies in
Brooklyn and Queens, was indicted for fraud and paying bribes. It is
alleged that
Sabet billed for drugs not eligible for reimbursements because they were not
needed or not dispensed. He also allegedly paid patients to get their
drugs filled at his pharmacies.
US v Cockerell
Indicted
Dr. Clay Cockerell, a dertmatopathologist in Texas has been accused of allowing his lab license to be used by a management company Progen to submit false claims to fed med for unnecessary tests. Progen agreed to pay the company 20% of the net revenue from those tests. It is alleged that Progen violated an agreement no to bill fed med and was offering inducements for people to submit to unneeded tests.
States v Boston Scientific
Settlement
The company agreed to pay $188.7 million 47 states and DC to settle allegations that they deceptively marketed their surgical mesh to consumers.
US v Shah
Settlement
Dr. Dinesh Shah, a cardiologist in Oakland County, Michigan, has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that he billed to unnecessary test or tests never performed. The unnecessary tests were ABI/TBI tests along with nuclear Stress Tests. This was a qui tam bought by former employees.
US v Fresnius Kabi Oncology
Sentenced
The Indian company plead guilty to failing to provide records to the FDA. They destroyed the records. They were fined $30 million and forfeit an additional $20 million.
US v Harris
Guilty
Bradley Harris, the former head of Novus and Optimum Health pleaded guilty to fraud. He admitted he billed fed med for hospice services not provided or not directed by a medical professional. He also admitted he used blank pre-signed prescription to give to patients without physician input. He also admitted that Drs. Mark Gibbs and Laila Hirjee falsely designated patients hospice ready.
US v Bencosome
Sentenced
Dr. Yvelice Bencosme of Miami was sentenced to 63 month in prison for her role at Unlimited Medical Research. She fabricated data and participation in clinical studies. Top
Armijo v EmCare
Dismissed
The 10th Circuit said no to the class action by the plaintiffs against the companies. The plaintiffs asserted that the defendants had a duty to bill for "reasonable, usual and customary fees for provided services". They said their bills were too high for the ED services but did not claim negligence. Let us hope the attorneys in this case lost a bunch of money. Top
Patients v Mendelson Kornblum
Orthopedic and Spine Specialists
To Be Filed
The practice had been hacked but has no idea when that hack occurred. All they know that about 30,000 patients had information exposed for this indeterminate time. Terrible management.
OCR v The Arbour , Inc
Settlement
The Massachusetts company agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a complaint that they did not provide timely access to medical records. Top
Employees v Mount Carmel Health
Systems
Filed
Several employees sued the health system and Trinity Health for libel in regard to the hospital's action against them and Dr William Husel. The court rejected some of the accusations but also kept some so the case proceeds. Top
Patients v USC
Settlement
USC has agreed to pay an additional $852 million to 710 women who claimed they were sexually abused by Dr. George Tyndall at the student health. They had agreed to pay $215 million several years ago. The university had known about the physician since the 1990s but filed to act until 2018. Top
Mundell v Northern Light Acadia
Hospital
Filed
Dr. Clare Mundell, PhD found she was being paid half of what her male colleagues were being paid. She complained and was offered many thing but never equal pay. She has now filed suit. The hospital's statements seem to be trying to tell the big lie.
Bichai v Dignity Health
Ca Ct App
Dr, William Bichai applied for privileges at Mercy Hospital after surrendering them three years prior. Suring that time he was on the staff of San Joaquin Hospital. He was told by Mercy that he would get conditional privileges but then he got into an altercation with physician at San Joaquin. He was told he would not receive his Mercy privileges due to his conduct at San Joaquin and was offered peer review which he accepted and then filed a suit against both hospitals. Mercy filed a demur since Bichai did not finish the administrative remedies and that his complaint was really against a separate entity the medical staff. The appellate court agreed. They denied the administrative demur since the action was one where administrative remedy was not a prerequisite but upheld the demur as the hospital never acted on the medical staff recommendation. I feel for the physician. Some poor lawyering here. I wonder how much this attorney knows about medical staff law?
Melamed v Cedars-Sinai Hospital
Ca Ct App
Dr. Hooman Melamed had his back surgery privileges summarily suspended after a back surgery went awry. Two weeks later they added more cases against the physician and continued the suspension. He was offered a hearing and the committee concluded the suspension was reasonable and warranted at the time imposed. The appeal committee and the Board upheld the hearing recommendations. Melamed then sued challenging the August 1 charges and not the July 15 charges. However, at the hearing committee his attorney asked the committee to evaluate if the July suspension was reasonable but nothing was asked regarding the August recommendation to continue the suspension. The court said that it would not review evidence on placed before the committee and therefore Melamed had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.
Stephenson v Atrium Health
Filed
Dr. Courtney Stephenson, a fetal surgeon for the North Carolina organization for over 15 years, went on family medical leave to care for her daughter who had a relapse of a serious health condition. She was approved for FMLA by the Atrium HR Department. During her leave she would come back to the fetal care center to provide care for some patients but was forced to stay the whole day, against the FMLA. She was also called into multiple meeting to get blasted for shirking her duties. After her leave ended she had two investigations into her clinical care which had never happened prior. She was then terminated for unknown reasons and filed suit for $10 million. She is now employed by a rival organization. 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.