December 1, 2020 Recent Legal News
 | |
| |
| |
| |
|
US v Indivor Solutions
Sentenced
The company had pled guilty to marketing Suboxone illegally. They were sentenced to pay $289 million. This brings the money collected as part of this Suboxone marketing to about $2 Billion. It has also landed several people in jail for their roles.
US v Purdue Pharma
Guilty
The company plead guilty to criminal charges stemming from paying kickbacks to physicians and Practice Fusion. The company has been fined $5.5 Billion but as they are going through bankruptcy most all of this will not be paid. They had agreed earlier to a fine of $2.8 Billion that also will not be paid.
New York v Valbrun
Arrested
Dr. Leon Valbrun, a psychiatrist in New Yourk City was arrested for illegal selling of narcotics for money. Top
US v Kaiser Permanente
Settlement
The HMO has agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle allegations that their Medicare Advantage Plan knowingly submitted false invalid diagnoses and therefore received much more money that they deserved.
US v Davydov
Guilty
Albert Davydov, the owner of a medical brace company, has plead guilty of violations of the Anti-Kickback laws. He was part of the conspiracy to bill for medical braces even if no need. He has agreed to repay $16.58 million as well as possible 5 years in prison.
US v Eranga Cardiology
Settlement
Dr. Eranga Haththotuwa and his PC agreed to pay $500,000 to settle allegations that he billed for procedures without generating the necessary reports.
US v Lynn
Indicted
Dr. Andrew Lynn, DPM of Knoxville, was indicted for fraud. He is alleged to bill for services not rendered.
US v Piacente
Settlement
Dr. Dominick Piacente of New York agreed to pay $150,000 to settle allegations that he paid kickbacks to medical management companies to induce them to hire him to care for people in private adult homes.
US v Schmidt
Guilty
Kimberly Schmidt, was a worker in the office of Dr. Lee Beeson in Moscow, Pennsylvania, and admitted to accepting monthly bribes to collect DA specimens and send them to clinical labs.
US v Siado
Sentenced
Patrick Siado of Houston was sentenced to 51 months in prison for receiving illegal kickbacks to get people to give DNA swabs which were not medically necessary. He also must repay $50,000.
US v Nine
Indicted
Nine people were indicted by a federal grand jury in Cleveland for healthcare fraud. This all stemmed from a non-profit called Eye for Change. The are accused of submitting claims for service not performed and falsifying the medical records. The feds want them to forfeit $2.3 million.
US v Hamilton
Sentenced
Dr. Yolanda Hamilton, the owner of a Harris County, Texas, HMS Health Wellness Center, was sentenced to five yers in prison. She was convicted of fraud and kickbacks for signing false statements for home health patients.
US v Mori, Bean and Brooks PA
Settlement
The Jacksonville, Florida, radiology group has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims for interpretations done outside the country. They did a re-read and billed , not kosher.
US v Robertson
Sentenced
Heidi Robertson, was a primary insurance biller at a Birmingham, Alabama, psychiatric clinic. The clinic and Robertson billed for services not provided. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and to pay $850,000 in restitution. The owner of the clinic is to be sentenced later.
US v Therakos, Inc
Settlement
J&J has agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that the purchased company promoted unapproved uses for a pediatric extracorporeal photopheresis system.
US v Kostishion
Guilty
Edward Kostishion of Lakeland, Florida, pleaded guilty of fraud and kickbacks. He was accused of operating Ark Laboratory which gave gift cards to "patients" for the use of their information to bill for phony genetic tests.
US v Maywalt
Indicted
Joshua Maywalt of Tampa wasindicted on charges of fraud. He is alleged to embezzle money by false billing under a physician's name and having money go to his accounts.
US v Doctor's Choice Homecare
Settlement
The Sarasota comapny has agreed to pay $3.856 million and Timothy Beach and Stuart Christensen will pay each $647,000 to settle allegations that they pressured personnel to increase home visits to Medicare patients and by paying bribes via sham medical director contracts to their physician spouses.
US v Allonce
Sentenced
Etienne Allonce, the former co-owner of a DME company in Hicksville, New York, was sentence to 36 months in prison and required to pay $4.444 million in restitution for fraud. He had plead guilty in 2019 after being extradited from Haiti where he had fled to avoid prosecution 11 years earlier.
US v Churchill
Indicted
A fifth person Steven Churchill of Boca Raton, Florida, was indicted along with Samson Solomon of West Palm Beach, David Warren of Boca Raton, Daniel Stadtman of Allen, Texas, and Lydia Henslee of McKinney, Texas. They are alleged to have paid illegal reimbursements to physicians for orders to bill fed med for non-needed services. They allegedly sold the orders to each other and other DME companies.
South Dakota v Sanford Health
Settlement
Sanford Health has agreed to pay $329,000 to the states to settle allegations that they knew that a neurosurgeon was receiving kickbacks and allowed the hospitals to bill. They had already agreed to pay the feds over $20 million to settle the Medicare claims. Top
Stone v UnitedHealthcare
9th Circuit
Stone was insured with an ERISA plan. Her daughter had an eating disorder and was treated in California where she resided. Stone enrolled her daughter in a plan in Colorado even though her plan excluded coverage outside of the the service area. She sued for coverage and of course lost as the exclusion applied equally for physical and mental patients.
FTC v Methodist Le Bonheur
Filed
The FTC and the state of Tennessee have both filed suit against the system for its purchase of two Tenet hospitals. Methodist had agreed to pay $350 million to purchase Saint Francis Hospital Bartlett and Saint Francis Hospital Memphis. The suit said this would allow Methodist to control over 50% of impatient acute care in the Memphis area. The FTC will attempt to get a TRO against Methodist.
Aoki v Gilbert
Damages
Dr. Thomas Aoki, an endocrinologist, sued Gregory Gilbert, a Sacramento businessman for patent infringement along with others charges. Aoki was awarded over $8 million. Aoki had developed a strategy for diabetics using pulsed insulin infusions. He hired Gilbert as an attorney to help set up his clinic. Gilbert then copied his protocol and re-branded it to sell as his own. He sold it to many clinics telling them it was covered by Medicare when it wasn't. Gilbert was convicted of of bribery and is no longer an attorney.
Otto v Palm Beach County
11th Circuit
The court ruled for two therapists who sued the County and the city of Boca Raton for violations of their free speech. The city and county had passed laws that banned therapists from offering conversion therapy to children.
Delashaw, Jr. v Seattle Times
Dismissed
Dr. Johnny Delashaw lost again. He was the former head of Swedish Neuroscience Institute who was fired for potentially jeopardizing patient care. He sued the paper for publishing articles regarding his management style and problems. The problem with the suit is that he did not claim anything written was false. He had lost his license but had it reinstated. He still has a libel suit against another physician for false statements. Top
Patients v Mercy Iowa City
To Be Filed
The hospital had an email breach which exposed the PMI of over 60,000 patients. The hacker had gained entrance over one month without being found.
Patients v Kaiser Permanente
To Be Filed
Kaiser had a billing error that sent bills to dependents of patients instead of the patients. The information contained PMI and affected over 10,000 members in Georgia.
Patients v Fairchild Medical
Center
To Be Filed
The Yreka, California hospital has notified patients that they had misconfigured a server and that might have allowed PMI to be seen for 4.5 YEARS. Disgraceful!! They never caught the problem but a third party security company did and told them about it. Top
Patients v University of
California
Settlement
The University has agreed to a $73 million settlement with seven women who sued the University in a class action for a sexual assault by University GYN Dr. James Heaps while he worked at the health center at UCLA.
Olson v J&J
To Be
Donna Olson sued J&J for cancer after using tyheir baby powder. The jury said the company should pay $$300 million in punis and $25 million in compensatory damages. The judge said that was too high and the plaintiff agreed to only take $120 million.
Burnett v University of Cincinnati
Medical Center
DC SD Ohio
The plaintiff's attorney attempted to sue the hospital for vicarious liability for their independent medical practitioners. He failed. She claimed that during surgery several iliosacral screws were misplaced and she has permanent injury. Actually the surgery was not at the hospital but at an affiliated hospital. Why this was filed in federal court is a mystery. 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.