December 15, 2022 Recent Legal News
 | |
| |
| |
| |
|
US v Beauchamp
Sentenced
Dr. D'livro Beauchamp of Montgomery, Alabama, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for writing illegal oxycodone prescriptions for $350 each.
Trumbull and Lake Counties v CVS, Walmart, Walgreens
Filed
The pharmacies have filed a motion with the 6th Circuit asking that a lower court verdict making them pay $650 million to the counties for contributing to the nation's opioid problem be tossed or a new trial ordered.
US v Pikeville Medical Center
Settlement
The Kentucky organization agreed to pay $4,394,600 to resolve allegations that they screwed up their records of opioids allowing diversion of drugs from the hospital.
US v Balwani
Sentenced
Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, the co-conspirator with Elizabeth Holmes in the Theranos fiasco was sentenced to almost 13 years in prison. that is one more than Holmes.
Virginia v Davidow
Indicted
Dr. Daniel Davidow, the former medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents was indicted for felony sex crimes. He is alleged sexually abusing patients. Besides these criminal charges many civil suits have also been filed.
Snell v Baylor Hospital
Texas App Ct
Snell became confused while on a residential street and was taken to the ED of Baylor where he was evaluated by an employee of Universal Health Services and placed in involuntary confinement. He sued for false imprisonment and assault. The was no charge of med mal but the trial court tossed the case due to medical expert and the appellate court confirmed. They said this all stemmed from a medical incident and an expert was needed to show the deviation from the standard of practice. Top
US v Nazeeri
Settlement
Dr. Musaddiq Nazeeri of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $86,500 to settle civil allegations for filing claim not supported by the record. He cooperated in the investigation.
US v Panos
Sentenced
Dr. Spyros Panos was sentenced to 111 months in prison for fraud and identity theft. He lost his license in New York in 2013 after pleading guilty to fraud. He then impersonated an orthopod and performed peer reviews using another's name. He stopped doing this when he went to prison for the first crime but after getting out he did it again.
US v Buford III
Sentenced
Dentist Edward Buford III of Silver Springs, Maryland, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for fraud. He led a scheme to file phony Medicaid claims and paid kickbacks to get the patients.
US v Chun
Sentenced
Dr. Steven Chun of Sarasota, Florida, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and ordered to pay almost $300,000 for conspiring to pay and receive kickbacks and bribes for speaker fees in return for prescribing Subsys.
US v Savinov
Settlement
Dr. Victor Savinov agreed to pay $50,000 to resolve charges that he was paid for referring patients to home health agencies.
US v Nine
Arrested
Nine individuals were arrested for allegedly paying kickbacks to employees of south Florida physical therapy clinics. The people who owned the clinics billed for benefits not needed nor provided.
US v Dignity Health, Tenet
Settlement
The two systems agreed to pay a total of $22.5 million to settle allegations they submitted false claims to California Medicaid for unallowed enhanced services. Top
New Zealand v Doe
Filed
New Zealand has filed suit against Doe, the parents of a four month old, for temporary guardianship. The child needs heart surgery but the parents will only allow it if they can be guaranteed that no vaccinated blood will be used. The court ruled for the state and the child had the surgery performed.
US v Alabama
Settlement
The Alabama Medicaid has agreed to end a requirement that patient are sober prior to receiving treatment for Hepatitis C.
In Re Montana
USDC
A federal judge permanently blocked a section of a Montana law that said healthcare facilities to prevent discrimination against workers would require all to be vaccinated against communicable diseases. The public interest , the court says, is not outweighed by the hardships experienced to accomplish that interest.
Bernard v Rokita
County Judge
A Marion County judge said the Indiana Attorney General may continue to investigate Dr. Caitlin Bernard. The two had been fighting publicly through the press and courts as Rokita continues to lie about Bernard and she continues to rail against the Indiana abortion law. Top
Saldana v Glenhaven Healthcare
United States Supreme Court
The court decided not to take the case of wrongful death of a patient who contracted Covid while in a nursing home. This meant that the 9th Circuit ruling that the case should be filed only in state court not federal court.
Williams v Vicksburg healthcare
SD Miss
Williams is suing Merit Health for med mal alleging the ED physicians violated EMTALA causing a death. The hospital then sued a physician group that staffed its ED under an indemnity clause in their contract. The court said the hospital may legally do this.
Patients v GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi,
Boehringer Ingelheim
Dismissed
A federal judge threw out the case of 50,000 people against the drug makers for Zantac causing cancer. He said the cases were not backed by scientific reasoning.
Patients v Durrani
Ohio supreme Court
In Ohio med mal cases can not be started after four years. The Ohio high court has now lengthened that by allowing the statute of repose to be forever on cases where the physician flees. In this case Dr. Abubakar Durrani was accused of med mal by hundreds of patients. He fled to Pakistan and is still at large.
Mota v Tri-City Medical Center
USDC
Mota sued the hospital, OB and anesthesiologist for med mal. The reason this is in federal court is that Dr. Lopez. the OB, works for the federally funded Vista Community Clinic. Mota was in the hospital for an induction. No fetal heart tomes were heard and she had an emergency C-section. Mota claimed she had not consented to the procedure and not having general anesthesia. the doctor claimed she had given Mota informed consent for both.. She did the procedure under local and Mota hat had an epidural in the preceding hours. Top
SSM Health Dean Medical Group v
Sansome. Keyes
Filed
The Wisconsin hospital group filed suit against Drs. Jason Sansone and Brian Keyes, both orthopods, who resigned to start their own independent practice. The doctors screwed up the hospital's plans to build an outpatient orthopedic surgery center by having nine other orthopods follow them into an independent organization. They are to have their own orthopedic hospital. The physicians are being sued for breaching their contracts by using SSM property and equipment during business hours to plan a competing business and for inducing others to breach their contracts. They also are going after Sansome who was the SSM regional director or orthopedics and is now the CEO of the new venture for breaking a non-compete clause relating to that. The hospital is a loser in this since the physicians will not practice there again for even their hospitalized patients. The hospital also come across as an uncaring business Goliath versus David. They should have allowed the othopods to own or lease the surgery center. Dumb hospital.
Zelman v Cape Cod Hospital
Filed
Speaking of dumb hospitals,, Cape Cod may take the cake. Dr. Richard Zelman was the medical director of the Heart and Lung Vasculat Center at the hospital. He was also a long time interventional cardiologist there. He raised concerns about the quality of care when the hospital put profits ahead of quality. He did this on several occasions and eventually he was removed form his position as head of the unit. He continues to be on the staff. The hospital will not want all the information about their greediness made public so this will not come to trial but they will pay a huge amount of money and re-hire Zelman.
Kidd v University Medical Center
Filed
Julia Kidd RN, a former staff nurse at the Las Vegas hospital filed suit after being fired for not being vaccinated against Covid. She say it is against her Pagan beliefs. She had requested a religious exemption. She was asked for and gave them information regarding her religious beliefs. She states that others who were not Pagan were given religious exemptions. 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.