January 1, 2014 Recent Legal News
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US v Korban
Settlement
Cardiologist Elie Korban of Jackson, Tennessee, agreed to pay $1.15 million to settle charges of doing unnecessary cardiac procedures. He also was alleged to bill for procedures done by others. Interestingly, this is a whistleblower suit started by another physician who will get money.
US v Foret
Sentenced
Dr. Lynn Foret of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release plus pay restitution of over $800,000 and a fine of $25,000. While on supervised release one year will be spent at home with an ankle bracelet. What did the good doctor do to deserve this? He injected patients knees with steroids, a good treatment but he billed for injected with Hyalgan, a much more expensive treatment.
US v Inglehart
Indicted
Dr. Sharon Inglehart of Houston, Texas, was indicted for her alleged role in a $158 million scam. This is part of a scam by a hospital administrator Mohammad Kahn who billed for PHP services that were never performed.
US v Fowler
Guilty
Dr. Bernard Fowler of Englewood, New Jersey, admitted lying to federal officers about using Lucenitis, an ophthalmology drug. He stated he did not use the single use vial for multiple patients and bill for the whole vial when in fact he did just this. This carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
US v Patel
Guilty
Dr. Maresh Patel of Florham Park, New Jersey, pled guilty of receiving a kickback of money for referring patients to Orange MRI. He is one of 12 physicians who have pled guilty so far in this scheme. The owners of the MRI are paying back mucho dinero as well.
US v Mercene
Guilty
Dr. Ovid Mercene of La Miranda, California, pled guilty of income tax evasion for having skid row people come to the hospital, be admitted and be tested and then sent to skilled nursing facilities. He was paid by fed med for the care of the patients who needed no medical care and also by the skilled nursing homes. He failed to declare the nursing home payments as income.
US v Abbott Labs
Settlement
Abbott agreed to pay $5.48 million to settle allegations that they paid kickbacks to physicians to use their products. This was a whistleblower suit and the two blowers will get to share about $1 million. Top
Roman Catholic Diocese of New York
v Sebelius
DC EDNY
The diocese sued the feds for religious freedom and won. They will not have to obey Obamacare for acts contrary to their religion even if there was an accommodation.
Little Sisters of the Poor v US
US Supreme Court
Just before midnight when she was dropping the globe in New York, Associate Justice Sotameyor approved an emergency stay of Obamacare's rule regarding religious orders and contraception. She gave the government until January 3 to respond to the emergency order. Top
McMath v Oakland Children's
Hospital
To Be Filed
In a sad case, a 13 year old female was admitted to the hospital for a T&A for sleep apnea. Post-Op she developed a hemorrhage and then brain death. She is being kept alive artificially. The family wants her kept on artificial life support and all medications given until a miracle happens. The hospital wants to disconnect life support. A court agreed with both. The hospital is to keep the child on life support and their will be an independent examiner to determine if the child is truly brain dead. If so then life support will be terminated. The independent examiner agreed the patient was brain dead. The family then wanted the child to have a trach and feeding tube and be transferred to another facility. The hospital refused to do medical procedures on a dead body. They will transfer the body if the coroner agrees, their is transportation and an institution that will care for the body. The hospital has been vilified in the lay press and can not defend itself due to HIPAA. The family refuses to allow the hospital to divulge information and has hired an attorney. The original judge allowed the hospital to keep the body on life support until December 30. A different judge ruled the body should be kept on life support until January 7. Top
Criminal
Tidwell v State
Guilty
Tidwell is the county prosecutor in Texas who was stupid enough to prosecute two nurses for sending quality information about a physician to the Medical Board. He was convicted of misuse of official information and sentenced to 10 years in jail probated with 120 days of actual confinement and a $4000 fine. He again was stupid enough to appeal the conviction and lost again.
China v Zhang
Guilty
Dr. Zhang of Shaanxi Province pled guilty of kidnapping seven infants and selling them for financial gain. She faces the death penalty. Six of the seven have been returned to their parents and the 7th died. She made from this scheme about $10,000. The villagers claim that many more were kidnapped but the authorities would not investigate. Top
Ryliskis v Uniontown Area Hospital
WD PA
The OR Tech sued for racial harassment. She lost since she could prove nothing.
Warren General Hospital v
Langenberg
DC Penn
In a strange ruling the judge ruled that the hospital which was doing a summary judgment ruling won for breaching their own contracts in a breach of contract case. They dismissed the physician who complained that they were a menace to the patients via the without cause provision. This provision plainly states that this is not a reportable offense. The NPDB also states the same thing. The hospital reported the physician. The reason for the report was the physician was disruptive for his showing them the error of their ways. There had been no investigations nor any mention of disruption in any committee. TO PHYSICIANS MAKE SURE YOUR CONTRACTS ARE IRONCLAD. Put Warren General Hospital on the list of places you should not apply for a job. They are not to be trusted. Top
Patients v Cottage Hospital
To Be Filed
Santa Barbara California's Cottage Hospital had a server with patient information removed from the hospital by a third party vendor without the hospital knowing. This compromised the data of 32,500 patients.
Milwaukee v Milwaukee
Filed
About 9000 Milwaukee city employees filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights over a theft of a thumb drive that had their personal information. The drive was from Dynacare, a firm that does the city's wellness program. The information was not encrypted. The city was not told of the theft until 24 days after the theft of the drive.
US v AP Derm
Settlement
Adult and Pediatric Dermatology (AP Derm) of Massachusetts and New Hampshire has agreed to pay a fine of $150,000 for privacy and security violations plus must file a corrective action plan for losing an unencrypted thumb drive by theft and not reporting it as required by law. The drive contained information on 2200 patients and was never recovered. Top
New York Medical Society v United
Health
Filed
The New York medical society has followed the lead of Connecticut by filing the suit. They want the insurer not allow the physicians who were with the insurer to remain with the Medicare Advantage program. They also state the payments are too low to allow physicians to continue to care for those in the Advantage program. United is reducing the payments by about 20%. The temporary injunction request was denied by a judge and the case is now before a federal judge. The New York AG has also initiated an investigation into the dropping of 2300 physicians. 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.