June 1, 2024 Recent Legal News
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US v Sherman
Sentenced
Dr. Lawrence Sherman of St. Clair Shores, Michigan, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He had been convicted of prescribing opioids without an exam.
California v Hoefs
Indicted
Dr. John Hoefs, age 79 of Irvine, California, was charged with groping patients and sexual battery. He is accused of seeing a patient for a liver problem and forced her to bare her breasts during his whole exam.
Mississippi v Hawley
Indicted
Dr. Michael Hawley was indicted for manslaughter after he was found to be driving over 100 mph and involved in a fatal auto crash.
Missouri v Monaco
Fined
Dr. Michael Monaco, the team physician for the Kansas City Chiefs, was convicted of a misdemeanor Careless and Imprudent Driving and fined $2000. He was accused of hitting and killing a teenager along with a Good Samaritan who was helping the teenager. He remains the team physician.
US v Bergdahl
Indicted
Dr. Heather Bergdahl, was the chief transformation officer at Loretto, Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. She is accused of helping embezzling money from a federally funded program. She was in charge of accounts payable and opened fake accounts to help her boss Dr. Anosh Ahmed move money that he was not legally allowed to do.
US v Romano
Sentenced
Dr. Thomas Romano of Wheeling, West Virginia, owned a clinic in Martins Ferry, Ohio, and was convicted of prescribing opioids without an good faith examination. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison.
Idaho v Louie
Sentenced
Alexander Louie of Idaho is HIV positive and not taking his meds. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for deliberately trying to spread HIV through sexual contact. He admitted having sex with 30-50 males to attempt to transfer HIV to them.
Pennsylvania v Pressdee
Sentenced
Heather Pressdee was a nurse working a various institutions in Pennsylvania. She admitted to three counts of first degree murder and 19 counts of attempted murder of injecting patients with insulin. She is sentenced to three consecutive 100 year terms in prison.
Iowa v Lindaman
Sentenced
Dr. Lynn Lindaman, an orthopedic surgeon was sentenced to 50 years in prison after a conviction for sexually touching a child under the age of ten in his home. He had a prior conviction is 1976 of lascivious acts with a child.
US v Braylovsky
Sentenced
Dr. Anatoly Braylovsky of Wallingford, Connecticut, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his conviction of fraud for selling narcotics without a medical reason and then billing for it. Top
US v Cape Cod Hospital
Settlement
The hospital will pay $24 million to settle allegations that it submitted claims for transcatheter aortic valve replacements that did not comply with Medicare requirements. This is a whistleblower case and he will get almost $5 million.
US v Aronovitz, Michigan Ear Care
Settlement
Dr. James Aronovitz and his corporation agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that he billed for work by assistants who where not properly supervised.
US v Mirza
Sentenced
Dr. Muhammad Mirza, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, wa sentenced to 26 months in prison for being convicted of fraud. He and the co-conspirators would recruit Amtrak employees and using their insurance information billed for services not performed or not needed.
US v Salzberg
Sentenced
Dr. Donald Salzberg, an Ophthalmologist of Avon, Connecticut, was sentenced to 366 days in prison plus pay restitution of $1.34 million. He had plead guilty to fraud by ordering tests that were not needed and getting paid kickbacks for each test.
US v Adena Health
Filed
The Ohio based health system is being sued by the feds for submitting false claims for transcatheter aortic valve replacements that were not necessary or did not meet the requirements for billing.
Whistleblowers v UPMC
Settlement
Three whistleblowers will split $38 million that UPMC has agreed to pay to settle allegations that they billed for claims that were false. UPNC billed for claims by neurosurgeons that claimed to assist or supervise trainees but never happened. UPMC has already paid $2.5 million to settle these claims to the feds but these are claims not covered by the prior settlement.
US v Baptist Health
Settlement
The Florida system has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that they broke the anti-kickback laws by causing subsidies to be paid to patients to induce them to purchase services.
US v CHI Franciscan Health, St. Joseph Medical Center,
Shoenfelder
Settlement
The two medical centers will pay a total of $745,654 and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kevin Schoenfelder will pay $197,054 to settle allegations that they billed for medically unnecessary spine surgeries.
US v Carnaggio, Bauer, Berman, Mani
Settlement
Laboratory marketer Thomas Carnaggio of Irmo, South Carolina, Drs. Steven Bauer, Larry Berman and Alireza Nami all of Charlotte, North Carolina, have agreed to pay a total of $1.3 million to settle allegations that Carnaggio offered to physicians kickbacks and the physicians accepted the kickbacks.
US v Baker
Indicted
Scharmaine Baker,RN in New Orleans and author of children's books was indicted for fraud. She is accused of taking bribes from a laboratory and ordering tests that were not necessary or ordered erroneously.
US v Balance Diagnostics
Settlement
The company has paid $2.5 million to the feds and New York state for allegedly subleasing at above standard rates to induce referrals.
US v Castro
Sentenced
Dr. Daniel Castro of Battle creek, Michigan, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.97 million restitution. He was convicted of doing unnecessary sinus surgery.
US v Young
Convicted
Dr. David Young of Fredericksburg, Texas, was convicted of fraud. He put claims into fed med for orthotic braces and genetic tests that were not necessary and done via a telemarketing scheme.
US v Barroga, Barroga
Indicted
Twins Drs. Desi Barroga and Deno Barrogo of Texas, were indicted for allegedly billing for steroid injections but none were given.
Sullivan, Tabor v Erlanger Hospital
Filed
Two whistleblowers filed a fraud suit against the hospital alleging that the hospital in Chattanooga was paying physicians above market rate for referrals to the hospital and then billing for the services.
US v Tannoury
Guilty, Sentenced
Dr. Tony Tannoury, the head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center plead guilty of accepting free medical devices from DePuy in return for recommending the devices for his fed med patients. He also agreed to pay $200,000 for his sins. The hospital said he's a great surgeon and they are not doing anything against his privileges. DePuy will pay $9.75 million for their part in this case. The physician used the kickback devices to perform pro bono surgeries overseas. Top
Haddadan v Medical Board of California
Filed
Dr. Kayvan Haddadan, a surgeon and owner of five Sacramento area pain clinics, is suing the Board for putting his license on a three year probation. He has filed a writ of administrative mandate to overturn the decision. He was accused of two acts of negligence 10 years ago and these are of dubious problems or import.
Patients v United HealthCare
Filed
In a class action suit against the insurer for using algorithm technology to cut off care to its Medicare Advantage members the insurer wants the court to require its members to finish the appeals process prior to suit. this is even though the appeals process is multilevel and is stacked very high against all members and is greatly backlogged.
Psychiatrists v American Board
of Psychology and Neurology
Judge decision
A federal judge has tossed a suit against the Board for using its monopoly to force payments into the system for certification. The plaintiffs failed to show that MOC programs are CME products. Top
Patients v WebTPA
To Be Filed
The third party administrator for health plan claims was hit with a data breach that affected over 2.3 million people. This happened in 2023 and notified the companies in 2024. They did not explain why it took so long to determine the impact of the breach. They also did not explain how they allowed the breach to occur.
Patients v Ascension
Filed
Three class action suits have been filed against Ascension after their recent cybersecurity attack. This is causing multiple problems for patients attempting to get treatments. Top
Pierce v OSF, Fresenius Medical, RenalCare Associates,
Cheryjyru
Verdict
A jury has awarded the plaintiff $41 million for the malpractice committed by the defendants. Pierce, a lawyer, was at Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, in 2016 for pneumonia. The treatment caused an acute kidney injury which needed short term dialysis. He was prescribed Coumadin and recommended daily blood testing for INR. On discharge he was not given any plan for the INR monitoring. Over the course of outpatient dialysis he had three INR samples which showed falling levels but the Coumadin was not increased. He suffered a stroke and now needs 24/7 care.
Doe v Holtermann
Verdict
Jane Doe, a 13 year old was now awarded $2 million for being injured by Dr. Mark Holtermann of Peoria, Illinois, who used the wrong stent to treat the girl's esophageal tear when she was an infant. He used a leftover adult stent which dropped into the stomach and remained there for 11 months.
Doe v Seattle Children's Hospital
Filed
The parents of Ramesh Doe are suing the hospital for racial discrimination after the 16 year old died. she had DRESS, Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms. The family contends she died of myocarditis and was never tested for it because she was of South Asian descent.
Shouldis v Strange
New York Appellate Court
Prior a jury had awarded the plaintiff nearly $10 million in a suit against Dr. Theodore Strange for malpractice. The plaintiff took his own life and the family contended that it was due to the physician's failure to diagnose and treat his extreme depression and anxiety. The judge overruled the jury stating the causal link was too tenuous. The appellate court reversed and ordered a new judgment phase. Top
Pinter-Brown v Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Verdict
Sr. Lauren Pinter-Brown, an oncologist at the hospital claimed she was discriminated against by her male cohorts and received $200,000 less than them annually. A verdict in 2018 awarded her $13 million. This was overturned in 2020 bu the court of appeals stating the judge was prejudiced against UCLA. The new trial awarded her $14 million.
Husel v Trinity Health
Filed
Dr. William Husel was originally accused by the local DA and his hospital of intentionally killing multiple patients. In 2022 he was found not guilty of all charges and then sued for malicious prosecution and lost that case. He has now filed the same charges against the company but with new facts.
Ringhofer v Mayo Clinic Ambulance
8th Circuit
The appeals court allowed a suit by five people against the Clinic for religious discrimination to go forward. The five claim that they were illegally fired during Covid for refusing to take the vaccine due to religious beliefs. 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.