August 1, 2021 Recent Legal News
 | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
California v Jones
Guilty
Emily Jones, RN. of Riverside, California plead guilty of elder abuse and was sentenced to 24 months probation and loss of her license. She was a nurse at Brookdale Senior Living where a patient developed open ulcers and she failed to record the discovory of the ulcers or notify a physician or family of the patient's deteriorating condition. The patient ultimately needed surgery and eventually died.
US v
Zielke
Guilty
Dr. Andrzej Zielke of Allison Park, Pennsylvania, plead guilty to illegally dispensing opioids as well as submitting bills for the costs of the opioids. He then dared spend the illegal gains on silver and collector coins another federal offense.
New
Hampshire v Kelly and Tempest
Arrested
James Kelly and Heather Tempest were arrested on suspicion of violating privacy with a bathroom. A visual and auditory device device was found in a bathroom in Catholic Medical Center in Manchester. It is believed to belong to Kelly a RN at the hospital.
US
v Bauer
Guilty
Following a two week trial Dr. William Bauer of Port Clinton, Ohio, was found guilty of prescribing narcotics without medical necessity along with health care fraud. He did epidural injections and trigger point injections without medical necessity. Top
US
v Pfizer
Settlement
Pfizer agreed to pay $345 million to settle allegations that they and several subsidies engaged in anticompetitive conduct regarding EpiPens.
US
v Freedman
Sentenced
Dr. Gordon Freedman was sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in the illegal "Speakers Bureau" set up by Insys. He also was a huge prescriber of oxycodone and fentanyl to a patient who died.
US
v Hagen
Guilty
Leah Hagen and her husband Michael Hagen were convicted by a jury of violating the kickback statute. The two were the owners of the Arlington, Texas, DME company Metro DME Supply. The paid physicians for prescriptions and paperwork used to file fake claims to Medicare.
US
v Genetworx Laboratories
The Virginia company agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle allegations that they billed genetic tests to Medicare without valid physician oversight.
New
York v McKesson Cardinal Health, AmericsourceBergen Drug
Settlement
The three have agreed to pay the state $1.1 Billion over 17 years to settle allegations that they were accused of contributiong to the opioid crisis. This removes the three from the current trial in Suffolk County.
US
v Prime Healthcare
Settlement
The company and two physicians will pay a total of $37.5 million to settle kickback allegations. The feds said that Prime paid too much for the purchase of one physician's practice and it was based on the volume and value of his referrals to Prime's Desert Valley Hospital. The two physicians are those that negotiated the contract and the recipient of the contract.
Tennessee
v Endo International
Settlement
Endo has agreed to pay $35 million to not go to trial for a child born addicted to painkillers and for fueling the epidenic.
States v J&J, Endo, DVS and Abbvie
Settlement
The four companies have agreed to pay $26 billion to settle allegations that they helped fuel the nation's epidemic crisis.
US v Christus St. Vincent Hospital
Settlement
The hospital agreed to pay $563,809 to settle allegations that an employed physician Dr. Arthur Caire did not provide or supervise.
US v Davidson
Sentenced
Dr. Richard Davidson of Delray Beach, Florida, was sentenced to six years in prison along with a money judgment of $2.7 million and restitution of $10.72 million. He also lost his license. He established multiple DME companies and lied to Medicare in their formation. This caused false claims to be made.
US
v Doolittle
Guilty
Arael Doolittle of Houston plead guilty to fraud for scheming to sell 50 million N95 masks to Australia and in fact he none to sell.
US v Kaiser Healthcare
Filed
The feds have sued Kaiser for pressuring their physicians to add diagnoses months to years after the initial consultation to get more money out of the feds for their Medicare Advantage Plan. This is a whistle blower case. Watch for a multi million dollar settlement.
US
v Kurtzer and Kurtzer
Indicted
Dr. Yitzchok Kurtzer and his office manager wife Robin Kurtzer were indicted for receiving and giving kickbacks in relation to genetic testing. The Scranton, Pennsylvania, GP is accused of accepting bribes from labs in New jersey and Pennsylvania. Much of this is on tape.
US
v Whitten
Guilty
A Greensberg, Pennsylvania, physician Dr. Thomas Whitten pleaded guilty of receiving kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics for prescribing Subsys.
US v Bluewater
Toxicology
Settlement
The Mount Washington, Kentucky, lab agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that they billed for more drug urine tests than they did. They also billed Medicare for their specimen validity testing. These were self disclosed.
US v
Spectracare Health Systems Inc
Settlement
The Montgomery, Alabama, healthcare system has paid $1 million for billing for items they werenot allowed to bill for and for not returning overpaid monies to Mediciad.
US v
Interface Rehab
Settlement
The California company has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that they billed for claims not reasonably necessary. Top
Students
v University of Indiana
DC Ind
The judge said the university may require its students and employees to be vaccinated. The attorney for the students plans on appealing. Let us hope he loses not only the case but a lot of money.
Parents
v District of Columbia
Filed
Two suits were filed to attempt to stop a city law that allows minors to be vaccinated without parental consent. the law was passed prior to the current vaccines but applies to them as well as the original intent of HPV vaccines etc.
Kaiser
v Merck
Filed
Kaiser claims that Merck illegally paid for delaying the generics for Zetia and Vytorin making the insurer pay more for the meds. Top
Patients
v Forefront Dermatology
To Be Filed
Over 2 million individuals had their personal information compromised after a cyberattack on the Manitowoc, Wisconsin medical practice. Ain't computers wonderful, especially when you are too cheap to protect them.
US
v Lowry
Sentenced
Amanda Lowry of Plano, Texas, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for her part in stealing information from EMR and repackaging it for resale.
Employees
v UPMC
Settlement
The hospital agreed to pay $2.7 million to settle claims related to a 2014 data breach. This will pay for the employees time and losses related to that breach. They should have done it immediately. Top
Nurses
v Virginia Mason
The system will pay $5.5 million to settle allegations that they did not pay for the time pre and post shift required along with being unable to take the necessary rest and meal breaks. Top
Scott
v Wingate Wilderness Therapy
Utah Supreme court
The court determined that the state Malpractice Act applied to injuries of a patient sustained while rock climbing during a wilderness therapy excursion. The court ruled that there was health care as the rock climbing was prescribed by his therapist and carried out by the staff and the injuries occurred during the execution of the plan.
Weiser v Boca Raton Regional
Hospital
To Be Filed
Weiser had his gallbladder removed due to a suspicious polyp. The hospital lost the specimen. I hope for the hospital's sake it was not cancerous. I would ask that the statute of limitations be waived among other things.
Three v Monsanto
Three women had filed suit against Monsanto (now Bayer) for brain damage from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls in the fluorescent lighting at Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. They won $185 million. The kicker is that there is no evidence that they were connected and even if they were Monsanto had not produced the bulb for over 40 years. Shouldn't the school be to blame for their failure to remove 40 year old bulbs. There are 21 more trials lined up over the same flawed thinking.
The
National Center of Negro Women v J&J
Filed
In a suit that makes absolutely no sense the organization is suing J&J because some of their members used J&J baby powder and now have ovarian cancer. They believe that J&J targeted black women in their advertisements because they knew they were more likely to use the products and use them regularly. The suit is for failing to warn their customers. However, I do not understand how an association can sue for their members and how the advertising was targeted to black women. Top
Nyong'o
v Sutter Health
Filed
Dr. Omondi Nyong'o, a black pediatric ophalmologist employed by the Palo Alto Clinic, has filed suit for discrimination. He accuses a supervisor of racial profiling and indifference by the organization.
Doe v Thompson
Filed
Jane Doe, a NP in Wilkes County, North Carolina has sued her direct supervisor Dr. Jon Thompson for blackmailing her into sex which never occurred. The two had worked together at wake Forest Baptist Health for several years and were friends as well as colleagues. She says that Thompson made recoding of her conversations that he would send to her family if she did not agree to sex. She reported the incidents to the HR and Thompson admitted the accusations were true. He was fired. Top
Gustilo
v Hennepin Healthcare
Filed
Dr. Tara Gustila was Chair of the OB-GYN Department and was demoted after she made social media posts criticizing BLM, and critical race theory. She was accused by her colleagues of being racist and unfit to lead her team. She says a HR manager admitted she was being demoted for her beliefs. BTW Dr. Gustilo is biracial with multiracial children. 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.