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US v Purdy, Seferovic, Khan
Indicted
Paul Purdy, Valdet Serfovic and Zafar Kahn all were indicted in an alleged theft of equipment from Beaumont Hospitals and selling it on Amazon. It is alleged they got over $550.000 in this scheme.
Harris County v Gokal
Arrested
Dr. Hasan Gokol was working for the county giving Covid jabs when he allegedly stole a vial of the vaccine. He faces up to one year in jail and a $4000 fine.
Narumanchi
Murder
For some unknown reason Dr. Bharat Narumanchi,, a pediatrician who supposedly had a terminal cancer, walked into the office of Dr. Katherine Dodson in Austin, Texas, at shot her dead and then killed himself. There was no known connection between the two except for one encounter a week earlier when the shooter came to the office to apply for a volunteer position. Top
Patients v Cleveland Clinic
Class Action
Cleveland Clinic moved to dismiss the class action suit the the Clinic violated the Ohio consumer Sales Practice Act. Their motion was denied. The suit says a patient went to a facility for an imaging study and was not told she could receive an estimate of the cost of the services. She paid a co-pay at the time of service but not given a receipt and then she paid more money later. The monies paid did not go toward the radiology services but to a different account and no receipts were given for the monies paid. She was then turned over to collection. The judge said the claim could support a class action and the case would go forward.
US v Walters
Sentenced
Wade Walters, a Mississippi owner of compounding pharmaceutical distributors, was sentenced to 18 years in prison and repay $277,659,599 in restitution and to forfeit $56,565,963. He had plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He had concocted a scheme to get US service members and their families to sing up for compounding expensive meds that were not needed. He used purchased procurers to get these people to sign up and then waived the co-pays.
US v Jones , Putulin
Guilty
Jessica Jones of Louisville, Colorado and Elizabeth Putulin of Coconut Creek, Florida plead guilty to conspiracy to commit health fraud. They helped Juan Buitrago falsify claims for DME to Medicare.
US v Bankhead
Sentenced
Diandra Bankhead of Atlanta's Elite Homecare was sentenced to five years and three months in prison and to pay $1 million in restitution. She scammed the feds b falsifying information in order to falsely bill for services to the Georgia Pediatric Program.
Colorado v Nationwide Medical
Supply
Settlement
The Denver company agreed to pay the state $70,000 to settle allegations that they made misleading claims regarding their sald of masks and respirators. They claimed the KN95 masks were N95 respirators. They also charged the company with price gouging.
US v Five
Guilty
Larry Smith, Mihir Taneja, Arun Kapoor, Maikel Bolos and Sterling-Knight Pharmaceuticals all plead guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Smith also agreed to repay restitution of almost $25 million. This is for their part in the using fraudulent prescriptions for topicla pain creams, vitamins and other products.
Florida v Apria Healthcare
Settlement
Apria will pay $40 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims for Medicaid for noninvasive ventilators that patients did not use or were not medically necessary.
US v Athenahealth
Settlement
The company agreed to pay $18.25 million to settle allegations that they violated the kickback law by inviting customers to the major sporting events with all expenses paid. They allegedly paid $3000 per physician who signed up with them via a separate corporation.
US v Ogon
Sentenced
Dr. Bernard Ogon of Burlington Township, New Jersey, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for his role in a scheme to have patients purchase compounded meds they did not need. He admitted signing prescriptions with no relationship with the patient. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $24.3 million and forfeiture of $75,000. Top
Nassau University Medical Center v
Nassau County
Settlement
The county agreed to pay the hospital $30.8 million for unpaid bills for services provided at the county jail and a county nursing home. This goes back to 1999.
Saint Francis Memorial Hospital v
State department of Public Health
Ca Ct App
Sounds like this hospital needs a new legal firm! The hospital was fined $50,000 by the State and the hospital was served with that final decision which stated it was effective immediately. Two weeks later the attorneys filed a request for Reconsideration but that is not allowed since it was effective immediately. they should have filed a writ of mandate but didn't until after the statute had gone by. They then appealed a court decision stating they had blown the statute and they lost again.
Cigna v TVR Management
Award
Cigna sued the firms and the management company for filing false claims. They won a default decision for $1.9 million against each of the three defendants.
Re United Healthcare
ND Ca
The judge ruled that United must redo 67,000 mental health claims under the supervision of a special master. This ws after a finding that the health insurer denied care to cut costs. Top
University of Texas MD Anderson v
OCR
5th Circuit
Employees of the hospital had computers stolen or lost and they were not encrypted. OCR fine them $4.3 million. the hospital appealed and lost at the administrative judge phase and appealed. They lost and again appealed and finally won. the court ruled the fines were too large for the crime as well as the ruling was arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law. The judge ruled the fine should not be more than $450,000 and reduced the fine to that amount.
OCR v Excellus
Settlement
The Health plan will pay $5.1 million to settle allegations that they violated HIPAA by allowing hackers to install malware and get the patient information of over 9 million clients. the breach lasted for over one year before being corrected.
Doe v Rady Children's Hospital
Filed
The guardian for Doe filed suit against the San /Diego hospital for a breach by Blackbaud, one of the hospital's affiliates who had a breach affecting almost 20,000 patients. Ransomware was attached to programs and Blackbaud paid the ransom. The suit accuses Rady of negligence and invasion of privacy along with a violation of the /California Confidentiality Act. The suit goes on to say that no one verified the destruction of the information after the ransom was paid or if the information had been copied.
Patients v Florida Healthy Kids
Corporation
To Be Filed
This plan had a seven, yes seven year breach. There are hundreds of thousands of potential victims of this massive negligence. Top
Thomas v Yoho
Filed
A Tulare, California woman went to Dr. Robert Yoho for a breast augmentation. In putting in the local anesthesia he punctured both lungs. He then compounded the problem by having the boyfriend drive the patient to the local hospital. No communication between the physician and the hospital occurred until later. He apparently was operating not in a surgical center but a commercial building and he was on probation by the medical board. Yoho has since surrendered his medical license.
Patients v Doctors Community
Hospital Center
To Be Filed
Get out the checkbook! Two patients died at the Lanham, Maryland hospital after a disruption in the oxygen supply where a valve had been mistakenly turned off. Top
Weiner v St. Peter's Health
Filed
Dr. Thomas Weiner , the only oncologist at the hospital, was removed from the hospital medical staff. The reason told is prescribing opiods for people with non-cancer pain. He sued for a temporary injunction to forbid the hospital from filing a report to the NPDB. The hospital agreed not to submit until after the hearing on May 20. This is based on an outside hospital stating that Weiner did not do a biopsy on a patient diagnosed as having lung cancer and who did not have lung cancer at the time of his death. He had been treated with chemotherapy for over a decade. He did not make patients sign pain contracts etc.
Jackson v UNC Health Care
Filed
Indian Jackson, who worked in the mail room of the hospital, sued for hostile work environment. She claims that she was forced to take lunch breaks within her office but her white colleagues were not. she further claims she would get "50 lashes" unless she did things a certain way. She was also forced to hear hsotile comments after the death of Floyd. The hospital rejected all claims. 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.