August 15, 2024 Recent Legal News
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US v Talbot
Convicted
A jury convicted Dr. Adrian Dexter of Slidell, Louisiana, of illegally distributing narcotics along with healthcare fraud. He had pre-signed prescriptions allowing people to get narcotics without a good faith examination.
Maryland v Malik
Sentenced
Dr. Istiaq Malik of Lanham, Maryland had been found guilty of sexually assaulting patients. He was now sentenced to 24 years in prison.
US v Pettyjohn, Gallagher
Sentenced
Dr. Janet Pettyjohn of Spring Hill, Florida, was sentenced to three years in prison and her granddaughter Shelly Gallagher of Brooksville was sentenced to six years in prison for prescribing and being prescribed narcotics illegally.
US v Gerber
Order
Dr. Gregory Gerber of Sandusky, Ohio, was ordered by the federal court to permanently stop prescribing opioids and other narcotics plus pay $4.7 million. Gerber was being paid for prescribing Subsys and had one patient die due to an overdose of fentanyl patches. He had earlier been sentenced to 42 months in prison. Top
US v Scimeca, Burlington County Eye Physicians
Settlement
Dr. Gregory Scimeca, ophthalmologist and owner of the practice, along with the practice agreed to pay $469,2232 to settle allegation that he (they) billed for medically unnecessary transcranial doppler tests to fed med. What he (they) did was have another business do and interpret the test and then billed for a second read of the test. They also ordered the tests without medical need. This is a whistleblower suit.
US v Avantor
Settlement
The company agreed to pay $5 million to settle allegations that they broke a contract by selling to fed med above the agreed upon parameters. This is a whistleblower suit. The former employee will get over $1 million.
US v Singh
Sentenced
Dr. Ankita Singh of Maumee, Ohio, was sentenced to 28 months in prison for prescribing for telehealth patients without ever seeing them prescriptions for DME. She was also ordered to repay $almost $5 million.
US v Admera Health
Settlement
The New Jersey based biopharmaceutical research company agreed to pay $5,389,648 to settle allegations that they illegally paid for recommendations for their products and then billed for the services.
US v Dead
Guilty
Dr. Ronald Dead of Missoula, Montana, plead guilty to prescribing telemed DME for patients that did not need them. He copped to one count of wire fraud.
Neuroscience Associates v St. Luke's Health System
Dismissed Without Prejudice
The independent neurosurgeons sued the hospital stating that uncompensated on-call requirement that the hospital mandated for medical staff privileges was anticompetitive. Originally the surgeons were paid but in 2018 the hospital stopped paying them. In 2022 the hospital mandated that to have privileges you must take call but did not make that same mandated to another neuro group that is under a professional services agreement to the hospital. The Neuroscience Associates dropped their privileges except for one person. They are now at a competitive disadvantage to the hospital group. The court said the pleadings did not cite an injury under the Sherman Act. The court did agree that the hospital group and the hospital were one with a complete unity of interest.
US v Erlanger Health System
Accused
The feds filed suit against the Tennessee based organization for allegedly paying excessive salaries to physicians for patient referrals. The hospital denied the allegations and said the used outside consultants to determine fair compensation.
US v Collins
Guilty
Rachael Collins, a licensed professional counselor in Hamden, Connecticut, plead guilty of billing for services not performed by her. She also agreed to repay $1,647,031.51.
US v Webster
Guilty, Sentenced
Dr. Thomas Webster of Sylvania, Ohio, plead guilty to accepting kickbacks. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison and to pay restution of $840,000 plus a fine of $50,000. He was living in Olympia, Washington and participated in telehealth conspiracy to falsely obtain patient information an lie about the procedures done and bill falsely.
Estate of Henrietta Lacks v Novaritis, Viatris
Filed
The heirs of Lacks are at it again. They are accusing the companies of using HeLa cells illegally, without permission and not paying compensation to the family, in their medical research to develop new drugs. Top
OCR v American Medical Response
Fined
AMR was fined $115,000 for its failure to give the requested medical records to a patient in a timely manner. Stupid by AMR.
Patients v Tampa General Hospital
Filed
The fifth suit against the hospital for its alleged negligence in a 2023 data breach has been transferred from federal court to state court.
Indiana v Indiana University
Suit Dropped
The dodo Indiana Attorney General finally woke up from his foggy existence and dropped the suit filed against the University alleging failure to train to prevent HIPAA violations. This was after off him getting his GOP panties in an uproar over the non-HIPAA violation regarding the 10 year old who was raped needing an abortion.
OCR v New Jersey Imaging Network
Settlement
The radiology practice agreed to pu in polices and procedures to fix their poor compliance with the ADA. They refused a woman a mammogram due to her being in a wheelchair. Top
Pardue v Lawrence + Memorial Hospital
Filed
Pardue was admitted for a robotic radical prostetectomy and died post-op from bleeding. The hospital is being sued for allowing this high risk surgery that could not be done safely at this hospital. Good luck to the plaintiff as it does not seem to have much of a case on first glance. The patient died 20 days post-op at another hospital.
Hernandez v Temple University Hospital
Verdict
In 2020 he had a gunshot wound to the neck with an injury to his left vertebral artery, a broken jaw and a fracture of the spine. He had a barium swallow test which showed he had a moderate pharyngeal dysphagia which posed a higher ridk for choking. He was tested on soft food but not solids or thick liquids. The recommended watching by a medical professional of his attempts to eat did not occur and he was discharged. Within 48 hours he choked on mash potatoes which led to neurological injury post cardiac arrest. The jury in the litigionous Philadelphia area gave a verdict of $45 million.
Shah v AHMC
9th Circuit
Shah sued Parkview Community Hospital in California under EMTALA. He stated that a nurse ordered her son removed from the hospital prior to him receiving a medical exam. The son had been taken to the hospital ED via ambulance for a drug overdose. The lower court tossed the case but the 9th reversed. Others taken to the same hospital the same day for the same condition had a screening exam. Top
Wildfire Credit Union v Stockman, Perez, Great Lakes Bay
Staffing
Verdict
In only what can be described as great hubris and possibly stupidity, Dr. David Stockman of the Saginaw, Michigan, area has again been ignoring judicial orders. One year ago he was ordered to pay a back money owed for a lease arrangement of medical equipment. He never paid the order nor did he return the equipment. He has now been ordered by the same judge to pay money due to significant overdrafts of checks. He also has several other law suits against him for allegedly non-payment for work done for him. Why has the equipment not been seized? Why have there not been collection actions against him?
Steed v MetroHealth
To Be Filed
Airica Stead, RN was president and CEO when she was fired by the board. The board said it was for lack of performance and released her without cause but she alleges that workplace discrimination. To be continued. 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.