December 15, 2020 Recent Legal News
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California v Benzeevi
Arrested
Dr. Yorai Benzeevi, the CEO of Healthcare Conglomerate Associates in Tulare, California, was arrested in Los Angeles after he originally fled the country in March, 2019, for Manila. He was accused of multiple financial crimes and is scheduled for arraignment in January.
US v Donald
Sentenced
Dr. Felicia Donald of Fairfax, Virginia, was sentenced to seven years in prison for leading a pill mill. She prescribed illegally narcotics for many patients and then falsified medical records. She had plead guilt to these and other crimes.
US
v Taduvai
Settlement
Ramesh Taduvai, a pharmacist in Manhattan and the former owner of Good Health Pharmacy agreed to pay $600,000 to settle claims that he billed for meds never dispensed to patients. Top
Bone
v Nash UNC Health Care
Settlement
John Bone received $150,000 in damages, attorney fees and forgiveness of his debt because the hospital knowing he was blind did not give him his bills in Braille which caused collection agencies to come after him for bills he did not know he owed. This is part of a larger suit against UNC Health Care System.
Arkansas
v Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
United States Supreme Court
The high court unanimously overruled the 8th circuit and agreed that states have the right to regulate pharmacy benefit managers. This will allow small pharmacies to be able to increase prices of generic drugs .
California
v Kaiser Permanente
9th Circuit
The court allowed the suit by California against Kaiser to continue by overriding the district court. California contends that Kaiser foundation Plan attempted to monopolize healthcare in Solano county by decreasing or denying payment for care at non-Kaiser hospitals in the county.
FTC
v Jefferson Health
DC Penn
The District Court ruled against the FTC preliminary injunction of the merger between Einstein Healthcare and Jefferson Health. The court said the testimony form health insurers was not credible and refuted by other evidence. Top
Patients v Montefiore Medical
Center
To Be Filed
The hospital has alerted over 4000 patients that a former employee and a vendor accessed their PMI to bill for surgical products. The employee has since died and the vendor is barred from the hospital.
Patients v Kalispell Regional
Healthcare
Settlement
The court will look at a proposed $4.2 million settlement by the hospital to the 130,000 patients impacted by the negligence of the hospital not finding the hack for months. This left the patients PHI and financial information available to the hackers and indeed 250 SSNs were taken. The hospital failed to train and have policies in place to protect their patients.
Patients v Technology Management
Resources
To Be Filed
The billing vendor for Monroe Louisiana Surgical Hospital found an employee's email account was compromised on July 2, 2020. They later found it was also compromised starting in august 5,2018. Two years! Disgraceful!!
Patients v Presbyterian Health
Plan
To Be Filed
The Albuquerque plan mailed 3000 members letters saying that a prior mailing had their name on the letter but another address. This misdirected letter had PMI on it. Get out the checkbook. Top
Willmeng v Allina Health
Filed
Cliff Willmeng was a RN at the Allina United Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was fired for continuing to wear hospital scrubs during the virus so he would not bring the germ home to his family. This was against the hospital rules as they wanted employees to utilize their own scrubs and wash the scrubs at home. The hospital lied to their staff saying their laundering co-op could not keep up with the scrubs, a falsehood. This was unique to this Allina Hospital. He now has his license under jeopardy due to this incident and the investigation is being led by a former Allina executive.
Gilman v Yuma Regional Medical
Center
May Be filed
Dr. Cleavon Gilman, an ER physician who worked during the spring Covid outbreak in New York and up to recently also in Yuma, has been fired from his position as a temp in the ED there due to his tweets. He has spoken the truth and the hospital doesn't like it. Another example of suppression of speech by hospitals. His employment agency is backing him and the hospital says he is now scheduled for more shifts but hasn't told Gilman. 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.