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December 1, 2022 Recent Legal News Criminal Criminal California v Von Lintig, De Los Santos Pascur Dr. Friederike Von Lintig and RN Danalee De Los Santos Pascua were indicted on involuntary manslaughter over a death of a person in the Las Colinas Detention Facility. The 24 y/o woman complained of nausea and dizziness and was placed in the medical observation unit. The next day the nurse visited the patient and the patient fell in front of her. No vitals were taken and whe was left on the floor. About an hour later futile life saving measures were started. It is unclear in the report why the physician is being charged except she ws on call. Colorado v Lambros RN Chris Lambros of Grand Junction, Colorado was indicted for sexual assault and also fired prom his position at St. mary's Hospital. He reportedly had photos on his phone and another employee reported him after seeing him photographing a patient's genitalia. Pennsylvania v Yanta Dr. Joseph Yanta, an ED physician at UPMC, is facing charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence. He apparantly has been accused of driving over 100 mph in a 35 mph zone. His BA was 0.172%, about twice the legal limit. His passenger and colleague was killed in the accident. US v Ponce Dr. Sean Ponce in Utah has been ordered to forfeit permanently his DEA license. He had been accused of giving out opioids for cash and without medical necessity. He is also to pay $65,000. US v Norris Dr. Merideth Norris of Kennebunk, Maine was arrested on charges of selling opioids without a legitimate medical reason. Washington v Brown Mary Brown was a RN at the Spring Valley Health and Rehabilitation Center in Pierce county when she amputated a woman's right foot. She was planning o placing the gangrenous foot in her family's taxidermist shop. She did not have permission to amputate the foot. US v Quraishi Dr. Sadeq Quraishi, an anesthesiologist aat Tufts Medical Center, was indicted for sex trafficking of a child. He was accused of attempting to have sex with a 12 and 14 yer old girl. Tufts suspended him. Florida v Hollington Dr. Scott Hollington was indicted of prescribing meds for sexual favors. Several women have now joined in accusing him. US v Keller A jury convicted Dr. Thomas Keller of Santa Rosa of prescribing opioids without a medical need. Hawaii v Bekkum Dr. Curtis Bekkum of Hana, Maui was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a one year probation for sexually assaulting a women in her home to provide medical treatment. The case is being appealed. California v Erny Sarah Erny, a NP, agreed to pay $20,000 in civil penalties and stop referring to herself as a physician. The nurse earned a doctorate in nursing practice as then began calling herself doctor in ads. This is misleading. Local Governments v Walmart Walmart has agreed to pay $3.1 Billion to settle all claims against it for its supposed role in the opioid epidemic. US v Holmes Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced head of Theranos was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The sentence will be appealed in order to keep her ouit of prison for as long as possible. She is pregnant which shows her thinking as she became pregnant after being convicted and knowing she would be going to prison. Great Britain v Kontostathis Nikos Kontostathis said he was an oncologist. He was not a doctor. He was found guilty of the deaths of seven people and sentenced to eight life sentences plus fifty years. US v Bayolo, Garcia, Others Drs. Juan Bayolo and Renee Garcia of Lake Mary, Florida and Henderson, Nevada, respectively, along with four others were indicted for distributing opioids without a medical reason via telemedicine. Utah v Wyatt Dr. Paul Wyatt of Salt Lake City was already scheduled to go to trial in January for performing surgery while his license was suspended now faces new charges of aggravated assault and unlawful conduct. He is an ophthalmologist whose license was suspended in 2016. In 2018 he performed at least seven surgeries with complications. In 2019 he performed more surgeries again with complications. He has been sued but has filed for bankruptcy. Florida v Salata Dr. Eric Salata of Southwest Florida was arrested. He is charged with two counts of sexual battery upon a physically helpless person. The 51 and 72 year old women went for cosmetic procedures and while under anesthesia were raped. About one week post-arrest Dr. Salata was found dead in an apparent suicide. US v Weiss Jonathon Weiss, PA of Middletown was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He had been convicted of enticing girls to send him nude images over Snapchat. Top US v Moy Dr. Marvin Moy was indicted along with 13 others for insurance fraud. He is now presumed lost at sea after a collision between two boats 25 miles off shore. There has been no corroboration of the story. US v Raheja, Mazzucco Dr. Deepak Raheja and Avanir Pharmaceutical regional business manager Frank Mazzucco plead guilty to kickback schemes regarding Nuedexta. Raheja got over $300,000 for speaking gigs and he wrote over 10,000 prescriptions for the med. The med was approved for pseudobulbar affect but it was pushed off label for dementia. US v Warren A Pennsylvania federal judge entered a consent judgment against Kansas Chiropractor Timothy Warren for over $15 million. The chiropractor was alleged to have falsely promoted auricular electro-acupuncture as an implantable neuro-stimulator causing millions of dollars in false claims. US v Modernizing Medicine The Boca Raton, Florida, EMR vendor has agreed to pay $45 million to resolve claims that it paid illegal kickbacks to clients to report inaccurate data. US v Barngrover, Southeast Regional Pain Center Dr. Kenneth Barngrover and his practice in Columbus, Georgia, have agreed to pay $1 million to settle allegations that they failed in their legal pharmacy operations to maintain required records. US v Thillainathan Dr. Ananthakumar Thillainathan of Stratford, Connecticut, plead guilty of healthcare fraud. He billed for psychotherapy claims he knew were not received. US v Duarte A jury convicted Chicago psychologist Renato Duarte of submitting false claims for psych sessions even when he was out of the country, never a smart move. US v Mehdi Dr. Ahmad Mehdi of Groton, New York, agreed to pay $900,000 to settle allegations that he up-coded and billed for smoking cessation services that were not documented. US v Istomin NP Alexander Istomin agreed plead guilty of mail fraud, health fraud identity theft and putting misbranded drugs into interstate circulation. He billed for services not performed and illegally waived Medicare co-pays. He also used patient names to get illegal prescriptions to sell to others. US v Kanvinde Dr. Mangesh Kanvinde of Batavia, Ohio, was barred from fed med for 15 years and agreed to pay $720,000 for his illegal ordering of DME and genetic tests. US v Oswego Hospital The New York hospital agreed to pay almost $100,000 to settle allegations that violated the FCA by billing for claims of outpatient mental health by a unsupervised LMSW. US v Canchola Dr. Daniel Canchola of Flower Mound, Texas, plead guilty of billing for DME and genetic testing without seeing the patients. US v Lee Dr. John Lee of Venetia, Pennsylvania, plead guilty of health care fraud. He billed fed med for steroid injections that were not medically necessary. He directed all staff to use a template showing 80% relief from the injections. He also must repay $500,000 to the insurance companies. US v Khaimov, Khaim Arkadiy Khaimov and Peter Khaim both of New York City area plead guilty to money laundering. They owned over a dozen pharmacies and submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare and then used the money for personal gain. US v Raley, Jr. Dr. Thomas Raley of Baltimore, was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered along with the company he worked for to pay $3.1 million. He is an orthopod who solicited kickbacks along with others from pharmacies to prescribe compounded meds. US v O'Rourke Dr. Sean O'Rourke of Lakeland, Florida, plead guilty to soliciting and receiving kickbacks. He agreed to forfeit $31,075 in illegal profits. He signed preprinted prescriptions electronically without ever seeing patients. He was paid $25 per signature. US v Clark Dr. Lindsay Clark, of the San Francisco area, plead guilty to charges of using meds purchased outside the USA and charging as if they were the FDA approved ones. US v Kaiser Permanente The feds had charged Kaiser Permanente of attempting to dupe the feds by adding diagnoses months or even years after the patient encounters. Kaiser asked the court to drop the charges but the court denied their motion. They said Kaiser had messaged their physicians to add "cachexia" to diagnoses. US v Sicuro Dr. Franco Sicuro, a Chesterfield, Missouri psychiatrist, plead guilty to illegally billing for lab tests and agreeing to forfeit $3.1 million. He ran, owned and was the medical director of several labs. He lied when applying for CLIA accreditation. US v Rifai Dr. Muhamad Rifai, a psychiatrist of Easton, Pennsylvania, was charged with fraud for billing for services not performed or not provided at the correct level. US v Greene Dr. Kevin Greene and his Feel Well Health Center agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle allegation the he/they received illegal kickbacks and illegally billed fed med. They billed for medical visits when the patients got fitness services. US v Dattel Dr. Frederick Dattel, a pediatrician in Kansas City, Missouri, plead guilty to fraud. He worked for a telemedicine company and received kickbacks from the owners to sign prescriptions for DME and expensive meds that were not medically needed. States v CVS, Walgreens The two systems have agreed to pay $5 Billion each to settle lawsuits about their role in the opioid crisis. Neither admit any wrongdoing. Physicians v HHS A federal judge sided with the physicians in their class action suit against HHS for their rule interpretation of a Ocare provision barring health care providers from discrimination against gay and transgender people. The question is the ruling that sex extends to sexual orientation and gender identity. Congress never said it did so it doesn't. Blessing Hospital Health systems v Quincy Medical Group The court dismissed the suit filed by blessing Hospital to stop Quincy from building a new birthing center and hospital on their own site. The Illinois health Facilities Board had earlier voted to allow the building. Blessing wanted no competetion for their inability to keep physicians and facilities. Shame on them. June Medical Services v Phillips The Louisiana law requiring physicians who perform abortion to have active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the abortion is done. In 2017 a federal court issued a permanent injunction against the law under Roe and Casey. The state now asked the court to overturn the injunction under Dobbs. The clinics said there was no reason to overturn the permanent injunction as there are no more abortion clinics in the state. The court overturned the permanent injunction. Top Lopez v HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, Miami-Dade County Lopez found out that his son's photograph in the ED was posted on Instagram before he died from his injuries where he was struck by a automobile. Patients v Deaconess Health System, Nguyen For the second time in a year Deaconess has allowed a physician to access their database for non-medical reasons. This time it was Dr. Quang Nguyen who did it in order to attempt to date women. He was fired from the hospital. Early another doctor did the same and he too was fired. They have retained an attorney. Deaconess now claims they have installed software to catch this type of behavior earlier. Too little too late. Patients v Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Mid Atlantic The medical records of about 8500 patients were accessed illegally due to an employee looking at the records without a valid medical reason. Top Buckelew v Womack, Waldschmidt The patient went to the ED at North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, after collapsing during a chiropractic neck treatment. The ED physician Dr. Matthew Womack was found to have been negligent in not informing the consultant neurologist regarding the chiropractics manipulation. Dr. James Waldschmidt, the radiologist did not appreciated the complete blockage of the basilar artery occlusion on the CT angiogram. The chiropractor was dismissed from the suit after reaching a settlement. The patient ended up with a locked-in syndrome so the jury awarded $75 million. Rojas v US Anesthesia Partners of Texas Rojas had a fractured shin and was undergoing surgery for a repair. His anesthesia was by a CRNA and supervised by an anesthesiologist. During the procedure he had low blood pressure with reduced or no blood to the brain. He ended up with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. He can no longer care for himself and he is 27 years old. the jury awarded $21 million. Oliver v Jackson Hospital Oliver gave birth to a son. He had multiple intestinal problems and was seen several times by the personnel in Montgomery, Alabama. He died at 14 days old from gangrene of the large intestine and an underlying cause of Hirschsprung's Disease. The jury awarded $21 million. England v Steen Dr. Heather Steen was found guilty by the General Medical Council of illegally concealing the circumstances of the death of a patient. The nine year old died at the Royal Belfast Hospital due to an overdose of fluids and meds. Dr. Steen had tried unsuccessfully to hold off the verdict by attempting to resign as a physician but her request was denied each time. Davila v UCSF The regents of the University of California at San Francisco have agreed to pay the family of Damon Davila $6 million. At the age of 13 months she was hospitalized there for a severe lung infection. She needed a cannula for fluids but the staff did not tie it down and she had her heart punctured by the cannula. This caused a cardiac arrest and with a catastrophic brain injury. He has quadriparetic cerebral palsy. I think UC got off cheap. Arvin v Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation
association ( NICA) The Florida based fund grew its assets to over $1.7 billion by illegally dumping patients onto Medicaid instead of paying them from fund proceeds. They are paying $51 million. Almost $13 million are going to the Arvins for the care of their son on whose behalf the suit was originally filed. Peralta v Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Blakely The court reversed a trial court and allowed a negligence action against the hospital and an ED physician stating the discharge plan fell below the standard of care. Peralta went to the hospital ED with suicidal ideation. He was diagnosed by Blakely as acute stress reaction and did not need inpatient treatment. He discharged Peralta with instructions to follow-up with his doctor, counselor and to return if symptoms worsen. Peralta shot himself the next day. Bonk v Ascension St. Vincent, Heekin This is one of over 400 suits filed against the hospital and Dr. David Heekin for malpractice and failure to accredit. In 2018 Cindy Bonk went to the hospital for an elective hip replacement. After 6 hours of surgery she died. St. Vincent has accepted some responsibly in some of the suits filed against it and in others they deny responsibility. A recent appeal court decision will allow about 2700 text messages making reference to Dr. Heekin by hospital employees. Dudley v UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine A jury has awarded $27 million verdict against the clinic. In February 2017 he went to the clinic complaining of dizziness. delusions, headache fever and cough. He was seen by a PA and diagnosed with the flu. Two days later he went to the UnityPoint hospital ED and was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis secondary to a heart valve infection. He was admitted and treated in ICU but had a series of strokes and mental confusion. Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare v Wiles Wiles had sued the hospital and others claiming their child's condition stemmed from a birth injury during a C-Section. The hospital had created a safety report several days after the delivery and the Wiles wanted it. The trial court had said OK but the appeals court said nope. Lowe v Oracle Cerner A person suffered brain injury supposedly due to not receiving continuous pulse oximetry. It was ordered via the EMR. The district court said the Cerner was dismissed as a defendant but the 4th Circuit said that a jury may conclude that Cerner's software had two design defects and there can be more than one cause of an injury and another injury doe not have to be eliminated. Stark v TriStar Centennial Hospital Mrs Stark was with her husband when he coded at the hospital. The staff tried to resuscitate him with a defibrillator. Upon using the paddles he went up in flames and died several days later at another hospital's burn unit. Get out the checkbook. Top Rizvi v Trenton Psychiatric Hospital Dr. Amir Rizvi of Princeton, New Jersey, has sued the hospital for threatening to terminate him for blowing the whistle on what he claims are egregious actions stemming from the new policies of the hospital's new clinical Director. He claims the policies have already killed two and left one other in a vegetative state. Grenemyer v Healthcare Partners Dr. Timothy Grenemyer signed a non-compete agreement with Healthcare Partners upon sale of his interests to Healthcare Partners. He was sued after breaking the agreement and he countersued. the court dropped all of the countersuit claims even though the Healthcare Partners had been purchased twice , once by DaVita and then by Optum. Wisner v Dignity Health Dr. Gary Wisner was indicted for making false insurance claims and the California Medical Board also issued an accusation to revoke his license. He then had the temerity to ask Dignity Health to put him on the on call panel even though being on courtesy staff he had never treated a patient there for several decades. He was told the accusations against him needed to be investigated. He refused to give any information and resigned from the staff. He was reported to the NPDB for resigning while under investigation. He sued for the usual. The trial court of course said no case and he appealed. The upper court agreed with the lower court. Never should have gone to trial. Never should have resigned. 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. |
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