June 1, 2020 Recent Legal News
 | |
| |
| |
| |
|
Virginia v Turek
Arraigned
Dr. Ingolf Turek, a urologist at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, was accused of murdering his wife. They had been together for two years and recently married. He had been accused in the past of beating and strangling her. Dr. turek was an East German Olympian decathaloner.
US v Matosdyan
Sentenced
Minas Matosyan, a Los Angeles man, was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for recruiting physicians stealing their identity and using prescriptions to sell opiates. He opened and closed "clinics" thruout the greater LA area to garner the fake prescriptions without the pharmacists finding out about his scheme. Top
US v Omnicare
Settlement
The CVS subsidy agreed to pay $15.3 million to settle allegations that they allowed opioids to be dispensed without a valid prescription.
US v Li
Settlement
Seattle's Dr. Frank Li and his pain clinics agreed to pay $2.85 million to settle allegations that they billed for medically unnecessary urine drug tests. He had all patients get a urine drug test whether or not they needed one. He owned the drug labs as well.
US v Merced
Sentenced
Theresa Merced of Jackson, Kentucky, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for soliciting kickbacks from a toxicology lab for referrals. She also has to repay $55,000. Top
Skyline Wesleylan Church v Ca
Dept. of Managed Health Care
9th Circuit
The church filed suit after they were ordered by the Department to provide abortions. The trial court said the church lacked standing but the Circuit reversed saying they can go ahead with their suit.
Elkhorn Baptist Church v Oregon
Local Judge
The county judge tossed Oregon's governor's edicts requiring the state's stay at home orders during the pandemic. The same day the state Supreme Court overturned the local decision allowing the stay at home orders to be maintained.
Montefiore Medical Center v Wall
Street Journal
Not Yet Filed
The newspaper ran an article stating the hospital pushed untrained residents into situations to fight the virus for which they had not been trained. The story states this resulted in a patient death at the hospital. The hospital took umbrage at the truth and threatened to sue the paper if they would not retract the story. To date the WSJ has stood by its story. Top
Patients v Geisinger Wyoming Vally
Medical Center
To Be Filed
The Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania hospital discovered in March that an employee had for three years accessed patient records without a legal reason. The employee had compromised 800 records. THREE YEARS!!
Patients v Mille Lacs Health
System
To Be Filed
The Onamia, Minnesota system found that over 10,000 records had been compromised by a phishing attack that went undiscovered for over one year.
SoderVick v Parkview Health System
Indiana Ct of
The court of appeal reinstated the claim that the hospital is vicariously responsible for the medical assistant who illegally accessed the patient's medical records and shared the information along with lies with others.
Jantzer v Elizabethtown Community
Hospital
ND NY
After a data breech exposed over 32,000 patients personal information a class action suit was filed. It failed as the lead plaintiff lacked standing. There was no imminent risk of identity theft. None of the financial information was compromised.
Patients v Gilead
Filed
An action has been filed against Gilead for revealing HIV status of patients. This is the same action as was taken agains Aetna several years ago when they mailed information in an envelope too large allowing their HIV status to be revealed. In this case the envelope was from the "Prevention team". The company said the envelope was sent in error. Top
Yang v Tenet Healthcare
Ca App
Dr. Suzanne Yang sued the hospital and the medical staff for defamation. She contends that they made statement about her competence to to the public and the medical community. Tenet filed an anti-SLAPPP motion and it prevailed in the court of appeal after losing in the lower court.
Gala v Delaware Board of Medicine
Delaware Superior Court
Dr. Nihiar Gala lost his medical license after he was accused prescribing controlled substances without proper evaluation and for sexual favors. He sued due to potential error by the hearing officer. The court said while the officer may have erred the Board did not accept the hearing officers characterizations in coming to their own decision.
Lin v Peaceealth
Filed
Dr. Ming Lin, an ED physician, was fired from St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham. He had publicly protested against poor working measures to protect the patients and personnel during the viral crisis. Lin was publicly accused of lying by a PeaceHealth official. Lin has partnered with the ACLU to bring this suit for wrongful termination and lack of free speech. Sounds like the hospital and TeamHealth which employs Lin have bit off more than they can chew. 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.