August 1, 2022 Recent Legal News
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Washington v Hill
Arrested
Dr. Josiah Hill, an emergency physician in the Port Angeles, Washington, area has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. He was accused by four patients at a hospital of assaulting women. He is now out on bail and can not practice medicine.
California v Miron
Arrested
Jesenea Miron was arrested for allegedly posing as a nurse at Riverside university Health System Medical Center and making it into a patient's room changing a diaper on two newborns. She even had a conversation with a real nurse at the hospital without being challenged.
New York v Cruciani
Convicted
Dr. Ricardo Cruciani, a neurologist, was convicted by a city jury of 12 counts of predatory sexual assault along with rape. He was accused by six women of over prescribing pain killers and demanding sex. He still faces a federal trial on the same charges. Top
US v James
Convicted
A jury has convicted Mathew James of East Northport, New York, of fraud. He owned a billing service and billed for different or more serious procedures that his clients performed. He also impersonated patients to argue with insurance companies after they denied some claims.
US v 36 Defendants
Arrested
The Justice Department arrested 36 people across the country for alleged fraudulent telemedicine, cardiovascular and cancer genetic testing and DME schemes. At the same time CMS took administrative action against 52 providers along with seizing over $8 million in assets.
US v Salzberg
Guilty
Dr. Donald Salzber, an Avon, Connecticut Ophthalmologist, plead guilty of fraud. He conspired with a company to do unnecessary transcranial doppler studies. He was paid kickbacks from the company plus his sham fees.
US v Sacks
Settlement
Dr. Gerald Sacks, a Santa Monica, California pain specialist, agreed to pay $271,259.12 to settle allegations that he prescribed meds in return for speaking engagement fees from the drug companies.
US v BioReference Labs
Settlement
The company and its parent OPKO Health have agreed to pay $9.85 million to settle allegations that they paid physicians above market rate for leased space to induce referrals. This is a whistleblower suit so that person will get 17% or $1.675 million.
US v Inform Diagnostics
Settlement
The company will pay $16 million to resolve allegations that they conducted and billed for additional pathology tests without the pathologists review. The tests were medically unnecessary. This was a whistleblower suit so the person filing will get 17% or $2.7 million.
Multiple Plaintiffs v Teva Pharmaceuticals
Settlement
Teva was sued by multiple jurisdictions for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic. They have agreed to pay a total of $4.2 Billion to settle all the suits.
US v Hurt
Indicted
Daniel Hurt of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was indicted for fraudulent submission of medical claims. It is alleged that he marketed and paid bribes to get specimens for unnecessary gene testing to a lab that was not certified to do the testing and to bill for those tests.
US v Greager
Indicted
Dr. John Greager, a Chicago area physician, was indicted for billing for unnecessary procedures especially in the removal of moles to screen for cancer.
US v Solera Specialty Pharmacy
Settlement
The Florida company has agreed to pay $1.31 million to settle allegations that they prescribed Evzio, a very high price version of naloxone, without the required pre-authorizations.
Investors v Vaxart, Inc
Settlement
Investors, including me, sued Vaxart for exaggerating claims regarding their ability to make a vaccine against Covid. The will pay a total of $12 million to settle the allegations. Top
San Diego v Scripps Mercy
Hospital
Filed
The city has filed charges against the hospital for patient dumping. They are accused of discharging patients without a discharge plan or place to go.
US v University of North Carolina
Health
Settlement
The system will pay $125,000 to settle a claim that it did not provide billing or health information in Braille or other accessible format with two patients who are blind.
US v 11 Defendants
Settlements
The OCR settled cases against the following for their stupidity: ACPM Podiatry failure to give requested medial records twice $100,000; Associated Retina Specialists failure to give patient her medical records $22,500; Lawrence Bell, Jr. DDS failure to give patient a medical record $5000; Coastal Ear Nose and Throat failure to provide medical record $20,000; Danbury Psychiatric Consultants failure to see patient due to an outstanding balance $3500; Erie County medical Medical Center corporation failure to give copy of medical records $50,000; Fallbrook Family Health Center failure to provide medical records $30,000; Hillcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation failure to provide medical records to a personal representative $55,000; MelroseWakefield Healthcare failure to provide medical records to a personal representative $55000; Memorial Herrmann Health failure to respond to a patient's request for medical records in a timely manner $240,000; Southwest Surgical Associates failure to timely give access to medical records $65000.
Texas v Biden
Filed
After Becerra pontificated stating that abortions are legal no matter state law under EMTALA, Texas has sued to state that Becerra's announcement is only a guideline and does not have any new requirements regarding abortion. Abortion is still a state's right issue according to Dobbs. Texas is correct.
Texas Residents and Employers v
biden
Filed
A suit has been filed in federal court against the administration for part of Obamacare. On trial is the law's requirement that insurers cover preventative services. They argue that the law violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by forcing private insurers to provide STD screenings and HIV prevention drugs.
Vasquez v Indiana Health
7th Circuit
The court has said Dr. Ricardo Vasquez, a vascular surgeon, has adequately plead a relevant geographic mark that allows him to move forward in an antitrust claim. He plausibly showed how the University controls the Bloomington market. This is a reversal of a dismissal in the district court. He showed that since vascular surgeons rely on referrals and Indian University controls the primary care physicians he was locked out of referrals.
Saini v Sutter Health
Ca Ct App
Siani was treated in an Ed of Sutter and received a bill for $4592 including $2811 Evaluation and Management Service fee. He sued stating there was signage regarding the fee. Sutter had disclosed the EMS fee in their services and post notices and told patients how to access it. The trial court dismissed the case. The court of appeal affirmed following Gray v Dignity Health. Top
Patients v BJC Healthcare
Settlement
BJC agreed to pay class members for expenses, give two years of credit monitoring, spend 2.7 million to implement multifactorial authentication and implement new polices and training to protect data. This all stems from their poor cybersecurity that led to a 020 phishing expedition.
OCR v Oklahoma State University
Settlement
The school agreed to pay $875,000 to settle allegations that they violated HIPAA by not finding malware for over one year on their servers. They did not or failed to do comprehensive risk analysis, perform evaluation of changes affecting security, failed to implement audit controls, failed incident response and reporting failures, failed to timely notify individuals and failure to notify HHS timely of the breech.
Patients v Kaiser
Doubt if Filed
In an interesting tidbit a laptop was stolen containing the personal data of 75,000 patients. Kaiser remotely erased all the data from the Ipad. Top
Graves v Titus
Filed
Carl Graves has sued Dr. Ajeeb Titus for over prescribing opiates and caused him bodily harm. Easy case since Titus has been arrested for the same thing.
Thomas v Bafitis
To Be Filed
Mar Jane Thomas, the wife of Hank Williams, Jr., died one day after her lung was accidentally punctured during a liposuction.
Patients v Heekin, Ascension St.
Vincen's Riverside Hospital
Filed
Apparently hundreds of suits have been filed against Dr. Richard Heekin and the Florida hospital for malpractice. He was dong knee and hip replacements and had multiple complications. He also had progressive suprnuclear palsy. He retired in 2020 after four years of complications. When did the hospital know? Top
Petit v PeaceHealth Cottage Grove
Medical Center
Filed
Clinton Petit was a certified nurse assistant at the hospital for eight years until he was fired in 2021 after staying home. He says he was fired for raising concerns about serious deficient staffing at the hospital and an investigation by the state Bureau of Labor and Industries said he was right.
Bowden v Methodist Hospital
Filed
Dr. Mary Bowden has filed a second suit against the hospital and its CEO for defamation. She accuses them of making false statements to the press and on social medial. Her first suit is looking at the money the hospital made off of Covid vaccination. 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.