December 1, 2023 Recent Legal News
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Colorado v Kim
Sentenced
Dr. Geoffrey Kim of Arapahoe County will spend 15 days in jail and have two years on probation for his role in the death of his patient. The plastic surgeon was convicted of charges of attempted reckless manslaughter and obstructing phone service. He was about to perform a breast augmentation when his patient had a cardiac arrest. He did CPR but mislead the family and did not call EMS until 5 hours later. She died 14 months later after being in a coma. His license is now suspended and there will be proceeding for termination of the license. The nurse anesthetist had charges dropped but forfeited his license.
US v Och
Convicted
Dr. Mohamad Och, a psychiatrist in Worchester, was convicted by a jury of unlawful distribution of narcotics. He prescribed the meds for money and not for a legitimate medical reason.
US v Rosenfeld, Taylor
Sentenced
Dr. Jonathan Rosenfeld of Atlanta and Elmer Taylor of Houston were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison respectivly. They had been convicted of unlawfully selling narcotics in a pill mill.
Oregon v Dixon
Guilty
Christina Dixon of Wilsonville was convicted of first-degree crimal mistreatment. She use alternative medicine like CBD oil to treat her daughter's liver cancer instead of the surgery she was scheduled to have. She fled the state with her daughter to avoid the surgery. They were found in Las Vegas and the daughter was made a ward of the state and the mother was taken into custody.
Pennsylvania v Cochran
Arraigned
Dr. Eric Cochran of Bethlehem Township was arraigned for allegedly sexually assaulting a female patient. It is alleged that at the urgent care center where he was working he on several occasions made "sexual contact" with her. She videotaped the acts.
US v Moheb
Sentenced
DDS Alireza Moheb, a Walnut Creek, California, dentist, plead guilty to a fed drug conspiracy. He wrote prescriptions for narcotics in exchange for opium for his chronic pain. He was sentenced to one year of federal supervised release. Top
US v Thekkek, Paksn Inc.
Settlement
Prema Thekket along with her management company Paksn, Inc and six skilled nursing facilities owned or operated by the company have agreed to pay $45.6 million to settle allegations that they paid kickbacks and then filed claims for those affected cases. The physicians were paid for medical directorships and fired if they did not refer enough patients. This is a qui tam from a former Vice President of Operations.
US v Davis, Bynum
Convicted
Former NBA players Glen Davis and Will Bynum were convicted fraud and conspiring to make false statements respectively. They were attempting to defraud the NBA healthcare plan into paying for bogus medical procedures. Top
People v Bayer
Jury
A jury in Missouri has ruled that Roundup caused the cancers of four individuals and ordered Bayer to pay the four $1.56 Billion. They got $6.1 million each on compensatory damages and an additional $500 million each on punis. This will never stand as it is against the prior rulings of the US Supreme Court. Meantime, Roundup has been declared safe by the EU and the US.
Families v UnitedHealth Group
Filed
Two families have sued the insurer for using AI to deny services. They claim that United used AI to deny or shorten rehab stays for two before they died. This is under their Medicare Advantage HMO plans. The families contend that decisions should be made by physicians and not machines. They also claim the machines are overturned 90% of the time through internal appeal or via law suits. However, only about 2% of patient challenge the AI decisions. United says that AI is not used to make any decisions.
Washington v PeaceHealth
Settlement
After being challenged by the state Peacehealth said that they would refund 15,000 low income patient a total of $13.4 million. They had billed the patients even though they were eligible for low income assistance. Not unusual for this organization.
Bennett v Hurley Medical Center
6th Circuit
Mia Bennett was a nursing student at University of Michigan- Flint. She requested that her service dog be permitted to accompany her during her rotation at Hurley and Hurley agreed. The first day one patient and one staff member had allergic reactions to the dog and she was eventually barred from bring her dog to the hospital. She then filed suit under the ADA and she lost in the district court. She had no better luck in the 6th Circuit.
Fantasia v Montefiore New Rochelle
2nd Circuit
A patient sued the hospital alleging disability discrimination under the ADA. The question is the interpretation of whether the patient "specifically requested" her daughter who is a certified ASL interpreter be her accompanying adult to interpret for her. The patient always took her daughter to all medical appointments as an interpreter. It seems that the hospital won this action as well. Top
HHS v St. Joseph Medical Center
Settlement
The New York hospital agreed to pay $80,000 to resolve allegations that they negligently exposed patient's Covid status to a national media outlet.
US v Singla
Guilty
A prior COO of Lawrenceville, Georgia, Gwinnett Medical Center Vikas Singla, plead guilty to unlawfully accessing the computer system as a cyberattack. It was for the intention of securing financial benefits for Singla's company and cost the center $800,000.
Patients v Warren General Hospital
To Be Filed
The Pennsylvania hospital had a data breech of financial and PMI of almost 170,000 patients. Look for the suit and the HHS fine to be forthcoming. Top
Neel v NYU Langone
Filed
Dr. Benjamin Neel, the former director of the hospital's cancer center was fired after he voiced on social media his views of the Israel-Hamas war. He states he was fired for reposting tweets that criticized people who supported the violence and death toward Israelis. I back Neel on this as free speech is paramount. However, it also has consequences and although I am against his firing I would not be opposed of his not being re-hired at his next contract time. 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.