July 15, 2024 Recent Legal News
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US v Hatfield
Guilty
Charles Hatfield, an interim CEO of Williamson Memorial Hospitals and mayor of Williamson, West Virginia, plead guilty of stealing over $34 thousand from the hospital. He used the money to pay back taxes on his personal real estate and transferred some to his own real estate company.
Michigan v Abed
Sentenced
Husam Abed of Sterling Heights, Michigan, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay a fine of $2000, along with $1000 in costs, $60 in DNA costs $130 Crime Victim Rights assessment and $340 in state costs. All this for practicing medicine without a license. He is a urogynecologist but had his license suspended and continued to practice after the date of the suspension.
Texas v Kauffman
Sentenced
Dr. Karl Kauffman of Cherokee County, Texas plead guilty of sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Oregon v Schofield
Arrested
Dani Schofield, a former nurse at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center was arrested and charged wit drug diversion causing serious harm to patients. It is alleged that she took Fenanyk from IV bags and replaced it with unsterile tap water possibly causing several deaths.
US v Severino
Guilty
Tara Severino RN of West Haven, Connecticut, plead guilty of diverting narcotics while working at the VA Medical center.
US v Kim
Arrested
Erin Kim NP of Windemere, florida, was arrested for prescribing Adderall via an on-line company for no legitimate medical reasons. She was paid on patient load and prescribed about 1.5 million doses of the drug for which she received about $800,000.
Florida v Brown
Arrested
Dr. Benjamin Brown, a plastic surgeon in Gulf Breeze, was arrested in connection with the death of his wife. He opoerated on her at his office and she died possibly due to lidocaine toxicity.
US v Flores
Sentenced
Anthony Flores of Fresno, California, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for defrauding a physician. He aid his girlfriend Anna Moore befriended the doctor who had mental health issues and conned him out of mucho dinero. They had plead guilty to multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. The physician has since died but the family pushed the issue.
New York v Lucchesi
Indictment
Dr. Michael Luccesi of Staten Island, New Your, was indicted for grand larceny, falsifying medical records and tax fraud. He was thee Chair of ED at SUNY Downstate Medical Center along with being the CMO . It is alleged that he made private purchases using a SUNY? business credit card that totaled almost $1.5 million. Where was the center's oversight?? Top
US v Innovasis , Inc., Felix, Felix
Settlement
The Utah company and its senior executives Brent Felix and Garth Felix agreed to pay a total of $12 million to settle allegations that they paid kickbacks to orthopods to use their spinal devices. This was a qui tam from a regional sales manager who will receive about $2.2 million.
US v Oladipo
Sentenced
Dr. Olarewaju Oladipo, an othopod in Canton, Ohio, was sentenced to 16 months in prison for fraud. He was convicted of 10 counts of health care fraud for up-coding, falsifying records and billing for exams not performed. He also prescribed opiates without medical reason.
US v Ahmed
Arrested
Syed Ahmed of the Chicago area was arrested at O'Hare airport as he and his family were on their way to Pakistan for a nnual trip there. It is alleged that he billed Medicare illegally for Covid tests for people that are deceased or never requested the tests. He then used the money to pay off the mortgage on his Morton Grove home.
US v Cameron
Guilty
Tefylon Cameron, a chiropractor in Powder Springs, Georgia, plead guilty of health fraud. She owned an interest in a DME company which obtained false prescriptions for orthotic braces and billed these to fed med.
US v Baylor St. Luke's
Settlement
In a whistleblower case the medical center, Baylor College of Medicine and Surgical Associates of Texas have agreed to pay $15 million to settle allegations that they allowed their cardiac surgeons to mot be present for critical portions of surgeries and do concurrent surgeries. The whistleblower will get $3 million.
US v Young
Convicted
Dr. David Young of Fredericksburg, Texas, was convicted of submitting claims for medically unnecessary medical orthotic braces.
US v Rabin
Settlement
Dr. Sheldon Rabin of New York city and his ophthalmology practice agreed to pay $2.4 million to resolve allegations that he and his practice billed for services that were not necessary. This is a whistleblower case.
US v Kinrys
Sentenced
Dr. Gustavo Kinrys of Wellesley, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 99 months in prison along with payment of restitution. He had been convicted of of fraud, making false statements and obstruction a criminal health care investigation. He is a psychiatrist who offered TMS therapy for depression and fraudulently billed for services he did not render including TMS treatments never performed.
US v Ghosh
Guilty
Dr. Mona Ghosh of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, plead guilty to fraud charges. She was accused of submitting false claims for procedures and services not provided or were medically unnecessary. She also admitted she falsified the medical records to support the fraud. Top
Re Rehoboth Medical Center
USDC New Mexico
A federal judge has ordered the hospital to put up a $100 million bond in order to file an appeal in a malpractice case. The case went against the hospital on a verdict for the plaintiff of $68 million for a botched hernia surgery. The hospital does not have anything close to that much money available and must close, file bankruptcy or lay off many employees. It is one of two hospitals serving northwest New Mexico. The question posed is should a defendant be denied an appeal solely due to financial hardship?
Braidwood Management v HHS
5th Circuit
The court ruled that Christian owned businesses can not be compelled to cover preventive medications as required under Obamacare. It also ruled that the district judge had overstepped his jurisdiction by blocking a universal injunction at this time. The court put the question of weather or not the USPTF is legal and whether there should be universal injunction back to the lower court.
FDA v the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
US Supreme Court
The high court ruled 9-0 that the physicians who sued to stop the use of mifepristone for abortions did not have the right to sue. They did not discuss anything regarding the legality per se.
States v HHS
USDC Mississippi
A district court judge blocked HHS from enforcing a rule against discrimination in healthcare until he hears a fully plead suit on the subject. This temporarily stops a Biden executive order to HHS to issue rules to protect transgender people from discrimination.
US v Sajan
Settlement
The Washington state AG filed a federal suit against Dr. Javad Sajan and his practice Allure Esthetic for illegally suppressing patient's negative reviews. He required NDAs prior to furnishing care to patients. This is against the CRFA. The physician and his practice agreed to pay $1.5 million in restitution to 21,000 patients and an additional $3.5 million to the state. Top
HHS v Heritage Valley Health System
Settlement
The Beaver, Pennsylvania, stystem agreed to pay $900,000 to settle allegations that it had multiple security lapses that led to a hack.
Patients v Ascension
To Be Filed
The St. Louis organization was hacked that probably compromised a huge number of patient's PHI. It will be interesting to see a drill down on their security.
US v Haim
Filed
Dr. Eithan Haim, a Houston surgeon, is accused of leaking internal documents of Texas Children's Hospital that showed the hospital defied the Texas rule to not do gender affirming services to minors. He is accused of breaches of HIPAA for sharing documents with a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. The fellow says the files had been redacted and that no PHI was shared. Top
Community Regional Medical Center v Inspire Health
Medical Group
Settlement
The hospital sued its neurosurgeons after they did a walkout and would not staff the hospital's level 1 trauma center. The hospital won $1.2 million but lost the support of the neurosurgeons so the hospital lost.
Riverside Community Hospital v Service Employees
International Union
Arbitration
The hospital sued the union for an "unlawful strike" and won $6.26 million. This was a nursing issue and the amount was to cover the cost of replacement nurses for the 10 day illegal strike. Top
Re Johnson and Johnson
Settlement
The company has agreed to pay $700 million to settle 42 states and Washington DC investigation into its marketing of baby talc blamed but never proved to cause cancer.
Doe v Legacy Health
Settlement
Legacy Health of Portland, Oregon, agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the family of a burn unit victim. An employee took pictures of the victim and distributed them to others which is invasion of privacy.
Horton v Medina Hospital
Filed
The patient is suing claiming that she was awake during her thyroid cancer surgery. She states that it was found that IV tubing came loose therefore not putting medicine into her. The hospital apparently admitted to the family after the surgery what had happened and found and corrected the error during the surgery.
Northrop v Nuvance Health
Filed
The family of a man who comitted suicide two years ago is suing Danbury Hospital and its parent Nuvance for wrongful dealth. It is claimed that the staff failed to see the warning signs of the patient's mental health risis. The patient had been seen in the ED for a suicide attempt and sent home the next day instead of being admitted as the family wanted. He was back at the hospital several times and died by suicide.
Re Purdue Pharma
US Supreme Court
In a 5-4 decision the high court decided that the deal made by the Sackler family owners of the pharmaceutical house was invalid. They based this on not giving the family immunity from prosecution individually. This tosses the settlement that would have removed the family from control of the company and the payment of $6 Billion. After the settlement was tossed the company encouraged the creditors or those supposedly harmed to file suit against members of the family.
Williams v Brookdale Wellness
Filed
Alando Williams was admitted to the nursing home with leukemia and mild cognitive impairment. Brookdale allegedly knew that Williams was prone to wandering and indeed five days post admit he was found nearby. The suit alleges that to keep him from wandering they doped him up on morphine and Ativan . He fell and died several days later. Top
Lynch v Penn State
Decision
Dr. Scott Lynch was one of the physicians for Penn State football. He ws dismissed from his position and sued the university because of his problems with football coach James Franklin. Lynch would not Franklin bully hoim into not doing what was best for the players medically including using as much tape as was need to tape ankles even if it covered the Nike logo on the shoes. Franklin did not wan Lynch to use the word medial meniscus when talking to players and punished players for getting medical treatments. Lynch won the suit.
Flatness v MercyOne Health Services
Filed
Kristin Flatness RN was hired by the system to oversee a clinic in Albert Lea, Minnesota. Two years later there were complaints about a physician for harassing nurses. Flatness called a meeting with the complaining workers and then was allegedly verbally accosted by the physician. She reported this to HR and then was allegedly removed from her position for financial reasons. She was given a choice of getting a 30 day severance package or transferring to another clinic 40 miles away. It is then alleged that two months later MercyOne posted a job opening with essentially the same job description as her job. Flatness was on medical leave for surgery and was allegedly fired while on leave. She has sued for multiple casuses of action in both state and federal court.
Mid-Hudson Anesthesiologists v Montefiore St Luke's
Cornwell Hospital
Filed
The medical group is suing the hospital for $21 million alleging the hospital breached an exclusive contract to use their physicians. The suit alleges that the hospital wanted detailed financial information from them a year before the exclusive contract was set to expire. The suit also alleges that the hospital used that information to hire a competing group.
Young v Stanford university
Jury Decision
Qiqiuia Young, a technician at Stanford, filed suit against them for racial discrimination and retaliation. She stated that Stanford had 10 years ago knew about racial harassment and did nothing about it. The day after her suit for racial harassment was filed she was fired. A jury sided with her and awarded her $10 million. How much of this she will ever see is yet to be determined. 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.