August 1, 2018 Recent Legal News
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US v Tauber
Indicted
Drs. Jacob Tauber and Serge Obukhoff of Southern California have been indicted for taking kickbacks in the Pacific hospital fiasco. They are accused of sending patients to Pacific for surgery after they received kickbacks from the hospital.
US v Pontoriero
Indicted
Claudio Pontoriero, a pharmacy tech who worked for MGH, was indicted for making false statements as to why he took money from a sister company of the New England Compounding Center. He said the $5000 monthly payments were for consulting service not for influence in picking a drug supplier for the hospital.
US v Aggarwal
Guilty
Dr. Madhu Aggarwal plead guilty to charges of prescribing and distributing Subutex illegally and fraud.
US v Sheen
Guilty
Dr. Vidal Sheen of Missouri plead guilty of obstructing justice after he gave false information to the feds with false entries. He was under investigation for false claims as he billed for face to face exams when he was out of the country.
US v Healthquest
Settlement
Frank and Ruth Jaramillo, the owners of the Florida healthcare entity, agreed to pay the feds $1.5 million to resolve allegations that it gave kickbacks for referrals. This is a qui tam case and the whistleblower will get $300,000.
US v AngioDynamics
Settlement
The company will pay $12.5 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims for medical devices. The feds alleged they made false claims in marketing their LC Bead. They also made false claims about their PVAK kit.
Henderson v Allergen
Filed
KellyAnn Henderson claims she was forced to resign after complained that a southern California physician wanted more free Botox and Juvederm than was his usual every two week shipment. Henderson says that she was informed that the physician then charged for the meds that were given to the physician. That is illegal. She refused to send any more meds to the doctor and was then retaliated against, according to the suit. She also alleges that the manager was sending large shipments of the meds to the physician.
NY v Goldin
Sentenced
Arkady Goldin, the owner of Value Pharmacy, was sentenced to six months in jail for his part of the kickback scheme by paying a hospital employee to steer prescriptions to the pharmacy. He has to pay back $1.5 million plus an equal amount in penalties.
US v Beauchamp
Guilty
The co-founder of the infamous Forest Park hospital in Dallas ha agreed to plead guilty and testify at trial against others. He admitted to paying kickbacks to physicians to bring their patients to the hospital for surgery.
California v US
Tossed
A San Francisco federal judge tossed the suit by California and other states against the administration's decision to cut subsidies. The rationale was the states have found a work around so there was no need to see the legality of the case.
US v Adams EMS
DC SD Texas
The court issued an injunction against the feds for recouping $410,035 in overpayments that were sent to the ambulance company. This was an extrapolation using statistical sampling. As the third level of appeal did not take place during the statutory time the feds were attempting to collect the "overpayment".
Flack v Wisconsin
Federal Judge
Two people sued the state for not covering gender reassignment surgery. The judge issued an injunction ordering the state to pay for the surgery.
States v US
Filed
The few blue states filed a suit against the administrations allowing insurers to issue plans that people want instead of those mandated by the feds. Small companies can now band together and get plans that are tailored for the individual and not a mandate.
Patients v Flowers Hospital
DC
The federal judge needs to bless the deal where over 1200 people will get money for a theft of data from by an employee stole data from the lab. The people will get out of pocket credit monitoring costs and receive up to four hours in lost wages and interest on on delayed tax refunds caused by the data breach.
Loyola University Medical Center v
Cook County
Filed
The hospital is filing a claim for over $500,000 in unreimbursed medical bills. The hospital housed an inmate from the county jail for months since the county refused to remove him back to the jail. The county tried to send him to Cermak Health, a county hospital which has mental health services. While en route the county was notified that Cermak would not take the detainee and he was diverted to the Loyola campus. It was determined there was no medical need for hospitalization. He was discharged but no one would pick him up. The county says it is willing to remove the detainee but can not since Cermak refused to accept him.
Hall v Hardin County and Baptist
Health
Filed
Dr. Larry Hall, the retired past chief of staff of Hardin Memorial Hospital, has filed a suit to stop the sale of the hospital to Baptist.
Robinitt v Shelby County
Healthcare
8th Circ
Lacey Robinett was injured in a MVA and treated in the hospital ED. She was covered by Medicaid but the hospital sued and put a lien for the full amount of the ED visit $23,750. The plaintiff sued saying the hospital need to collect from Medicaid. The district court said they could sue the plaintiff for the money. the 8th Circuit agreed stating there was no prohibition on direct patient billing if they did not bill Medicaid. They can not bill Medicaid and then refund the payment to get more from the patient.
Kalkasaska Memorial Hospital v
Patients
Mediation Ordered
In the suit by the hospital against three women for business defamation has been ordered to mediation. If there is no agreement then the case will go to trial. This is where the women went on social media to criticize the hospital in the treatment of their grandmother.
Pennsylvania Professional
Liability Association v Pennsylvania
Federal Judge
For the third time a judge has stopped the state from raiding the med mal fund. This is the third time in three years the state has tried and failed to steal the money.
Robinson v Travis Air Force Base
Filed
The father and mother of a 5 year old has hired John Burris, an attorney who never saw a high profile case he didn't like, to sue the base for negligence. The parents state she was touched inappropriately by girls in the girl's bathroom while attending school on base. The base reported all incidents to child protective services who are investigating the families of the girls involved.
Mayo v Wisconsin
Wisconsin Supreme Court
The state court upheld the med mal caps on economic damages. The state had a rational basis for enacting the caps.
Reyes v Yakima Health District
Washington Supreme Court
In this case a patient died after being treated for TB. The diagnosis was confirmed by the state health Lab. He was told to have his liver function tested but he did not do so. He died of liver failure after being sick while taking the meds and being threatened with incarceration if he did not continue to take the meds. The wife sued and had a medical expert affirm that the patient was misdiagnosed but did not give particulars. The court ruled that one must show how the standard of care was and how it was breached to have a case. The expert and the plaintiff's attorney both screwed up this case. The attorney should have known the expert's testimony was not adequate and had him redo it.
Belfiore-Braman v Rotenberg
Ca App
In what seems like another attorney screw up the plaintiff complained of a sciatic nerve injury post hip replacement. The plaintiff attorney sought or introduce medical opinion from a nonretained expert who never examined the patient but interpreted an x-ray exam only. The plaintiff lost the case and an appeal ensued. The higher court affirmed the exclusion of the radiologist testimony because he lacked foundation since he did not perform ay hip surgery nor did he review the operative report or medical records. His possible testimony regarding the cause of the injury being excessive force was also duplicative of the retained expert.
Dehn v Illinois
Filed
The plaintiff believe that Illinois was
negligent in the deaths of patients in a veterans home from Legionnaire's
Disease. The home is operated by the Illinois Department of Veterans
Affairs. This is the 12th lawsuit filed in this case out of the 14 deaths
at the home from the disease.
ACEP v Anthem Blue Cross
Filed
The association and the Medical Association of Georgia has filed suit in federal court to get Anthem to rescind its policy denying medical coverage to patients who seek treatment for non-emergency conditions. The insurer said that the policy is to have non-emergency patients seek medical treatment at the physician office or urgent care setting. They are correct.
US v New York City
Settlement
The city has agreed to pay city-employed mid wives and nurses for discriminatory action due to their sex. They differentiated between "physical taxing" job for males but not females. Those with physical taxing jobs could retire at age 50 with full pensions but those others had to wait to they were 55 to retire with full pensions. They will pay $ 20.8 million.
Meier v Shawnee Mission Medical
Center
Filed
Margaret Meir was the director of women's and children's services and was fired. She is suing because she state she was fired due to her reporting the understaffing of the birth center and she is a woman. She says the male leaders did not listen to females.
Bridges v Community Memorial Health System
Filed
Kimberly Bridges, a vice prsident at the system, is suing the system for not protecting her from a physician vice president in the system. She states that Dr. Richard Reisman had yelled , berated and mistreated her for years. She says that she had complained about it and nothing was done.
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.