June 15, 2019 Recent Legal News
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Ohio v Husel
Charged
Dr. William Husel has been charged with the deaths of 25 hospital patients for deliberately giving them overdoses of opioids. He was working in the units at Mount Carmel Health System when he was fired and then had his medical license removed. There have been many wrongful death suits filed against him and the hospital system. The hospital has settled many of them for hundreds of thousands each and made a public apology. Husel has plead not guilty.
US
v Frederico
Guilty
Kathleen Frederico, an accountant for St. Luke's Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, plead guilty of embezzlement of $558,000 by creating unauthorized ccheck to herself and entering a different payee in the ledger.
California v Heaps
Charged
Dr. James Heaps, the former Oncological Gyne was charged with sexual battery. His crime was from allegations of sexual misconduct by several patients which may or may not have merit.
US v Mulvey
Charged
Kelsey Mulvey, a former nurse at Roswell Park Cancer Center was charged with stealing narcotics for personal use. She substituted tap water for Dilaudid in syringes. Some patients did report problems due to the contaminated water.
Women v
Ortega
Filed
Four women have found a lawyer to sue Dr. Fabio Ortega along with is former employer NorthShore University Heath System. This follows Ortega being arrested for one count of criminal assault last year. That woman also filed a civil suit but it has been dismissed. The criminal suit is still in discovery. The health system is being sued for failure to warn the women. One woman of the quartet was upset because he asked personal questions. Nobody says what is meant by sexually assault. Top
US v Koko
Sentenced
Egondu "Kate" Koko of Houston was sentenced to 188 months in prison for paying kickbacks to physicians in furtherance of a scheme to bill for not necessary home health services and then launder the money. She was a patient recruiter for Crisevenb Health Management, Beechwood Home Health and others and paid physicians and patients for paperwork needed to bill illegally.
US v Galichia
Settlement
Dr. Joseph Galichia of Wichita and his cardiologist group paid $5.8 million to resolve allegations that they did unnecessary cardiac procedures. He also is out of the Medicare program for three years. This is the third claim against Galichia. He also paid $1.5 million in 2000 for submitting claims that were upcoded and another $1.3 million in 2009 for services not provided or lacking proper documentation. This is a whistleblower law suit by another physician who will receive $1.16 million.
US v Oklahoma Heart Hospital
Settlement
The hospital has agreed to pay $2.8 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to physicians. A RN at the hospital blew the whistle for billing for inpatient heart stents even if done as an outpatient in Medicaid patients.
US v Insys
Settlement
The maker of Susbys paid $225 million to settle allegations that it bribed physicians and used deceptive marketing to sell its product. Following the announcement of the settlement the company filed for bankruptcy protection. Since the feds are not secured creditors they will need to stand in line. Watch for Purdue Pharma to follow soon.
US v Rialto Capital
Management
Settlement
The group agreed to pay $3.6 million to settle allegations that paid physicians for referrals at its Indiana hospital Kentuckiana Medical Center. The gave personal loans to physicians and then repeatedly forebore the repayments. This is straight out against the law.
US v Coffey Health System
Settlement
The system agreed to pay $250,000 to settle allegations that lied stating it had done the required conducting or reviewing security risk analyses. The 25 bed hospital did not.
Padilla v CHS
Filed
Caleb Padilla filed a federal class action suit against the system alleging the system lied to investors by understating its contractual allowances and provision for bad debts leading to a false increased revenue and decreased loss to prop up the stock price.
US v Heritage Pharmaceuticals
Settlement
The company agreed in a criminal suit to pay $$225,000 and admitted to price fixing with the diabetic drug glyburide. They will also cooperate with the feds in the prosecution of others. This guilty plea will also force them off the fed med rolls for 5 years. They had paid $7.1 million in the past to settle the civil suit for the same thing.
US v Clough
Sentenced
Christopher Clough, of Dover, New Hampshire was sentenced to 48 months in prison for being on the take for fentenyl. He was paid kickbacks for using the drug and speaking to others about using it.
US v McCollum
Filed
The feds filed against Daniel McCollum, a Greenville, South Carolina chiropractor, as well as his pain management company and labs for providing unnecessary services and illegal financial arrangements.
US v Mallinckrodt
Intervenor
The feds intervened in a suit against the drug maker for violations of the False Claims Act. They contend that the drug maker paid illegal kickbacks for the use of their drug H.P. Acthar Gel. They are alleged to have used their foundation for illegal kickbacks. Watch for the settlement.
US v O'Lear
Indicted
Thomas O'Lear of North Canton, Ohio, was indicted for the alleged billing of x-ray service which were never provided. He was president of Portable Radiology Services.
US v Shah
Guilty
Dr. Alep Shah, a podiatrist, was found guilty by a jury of conspiring to defraud and accepting kickbacks. He took kickbacks from a company for prescribing compounded drugs that were very expensive and not necessary. He also signed false prescriptions.
US v Glazer
Guilty
Dr. Robert Glazer of LA was found guilty of healthcare fraud along with a recruiter. They billed for unnecessary services.
US v Quality Therapy &
Consultation
Settlement
The Chicago area physical therapy center along with four nursing facilities have agreed to pay $9.7 million to resolve allegations of doing unnecessary services to boost revenue. This was a qui tam case from a former employee of the Quality therapy center. Top
Allina Health Services v Azar
US Supreme Court
The high court ruled that HHS failed to do a formal notice and comment rulemaking as required before they announced a new Medicare rate calculation for DSH payments. This will cost the feds many millions of dollars. It was a 7-1 decision.
California v Anthem Blue Cross
Settlement
Anthem agreed to pay the state $2.8 million to settle allegations that failed to identify, process or resolve consumer complaints. This settlement was a compromise of a fine of $5 million by the state on the insurer in 2017. Anthem is also to spend an additional $8.4 million improving its processes in the handling of consumer complaints. That is paying itself.
Doe v BlueCross BlueShield of
Tennessee
6th Circuit
Doe wanted his HIV med filled at his local pharmacy and not a network pharmacy that his insurer mandated. He sued and the courts found that there was no discrimination in mandating a pharmacy for high cost drugs. The court came down strongly against this type of suit. Let us hope the attorney lost big bucks.
Kaiser v Queen's Hospital
Filed
The HMO has sued the medical center for unfair billing practices. They allege billing for non participating rates. There is no contract between the entities as the old one has expired.
Bradford v Kadlec Regional Medical
Center
Filed
Bradford went to the ED twice and was billed for both visits as a uninsured. He received discounts for both visits and still owes significant money on those claims including interest. He is now suing since he found the hospital charges on a sliding scale depending on the services used a emergency room fee. He claims this is illegal nd is wanting a class action suit for not disclosing it prior to being seen. The hospital is suing him for unpaid debt. Top
Patients v American Medical
Collection Agency
To Be Filed
The agency was hacked and the records of about 7.7 million people from Laboratory Corporation of America and an additional almost 12 million accounts from Quest Diagnostics were potentially compromised. Also about 400,000 from Opko Health were affected.
Menorah Park Ctr. for Senior
Living v Rolston
Ohio Ct. App.
Menorah Park filed a small claims action against Rolston for money owed. Attached was an unredacted copy of account billing statements that included medical services rendered. Rolston counter sued for unauthorized disclosure. Menorah Park wanted that suit dismissed under HIPAA since the information was to collect a debt. The court agreed and dismissed Rolston's suit. On appeal the 6th ruled that HIPAA does not preempt a state claim for unauthorized disclosure. Menorah Park made no attempt at limiting the disclosures. Rolston's claim goes forward.
Patients v Mercy Helath
To Be Filed
The Michigan system discovered a data breach on a private server. About 1000 were affected.
Pertuit v Medical Center
Enterprise
Jury
The plaintiff won $300,000 including punis against the medical center for a physician illegally accessed and disclosed PMI. The money was almost all punis for the hospital not doing anything to the physician after they discovered his negligence. The physician and two others settled pre-trial. Top
Olson v J&J
Punitive Damages
The jury had previously awarded the plaintiff $25 million in compensatory damages for her allegation that her mesothelioma was caused by the company's baby powder. Now the New York jury awarded $300 million in punis. All will be appealed. Nothing paid. J&J has won about half of the cases to date and appealed all they lost.
Schmitz v J&J
Jury
J&J lost another trial in California. This one is for $10 million for mesothelioma after the woman used talc post showering for most of her life. this one was split between J&J and Colgate along with Avon Products. Yet another appeal in the offing.
Patients v Awaad
Multiple patients are suing Dr. Yasser Awaad and the first to go to trial is Martinez. She was diagnosed at age 9 with epilepsy by Dr. Awaad. She took the anti-seizure meds and had multiple EEGs. Then four years after diagnosis she was told she did not have epilepsy by another physician. Awaad is accused of making the diagnosis in order to gain from the testing even if the children did not have the disease.
Women v USC
Settlement
A judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement of a class action suit against the school for the acts of its prior gyne Dr. George Tyndall. The school has agreed to pay a total of $215 million to settle the cases by all the 17,000 women. The attorneys will get $25 million. A three person panel will determine how much each person should receive.
Stokes v Baker
Ca Ct App
The issue was a California law that requires expert opinion in medical malpractice actions against ED physicians have substantial recent experience in the ED. In this case the expert on causation had noe as he was a neuro-interventional surgeon. The court ruled that the law was only for standard of care issues not causation and the expert can testify. The allegation was the ED physician failure to diagnose a subarachnoid bleed caused serious injury. Top
Kentucky Board of Medicine v
Bennett
Settlement
In a weird case Dr. John Bennett of Berea, Kentucky, was fined $5000 and had his license put on probation for five years for recording false low blood pressures on patients at the VA so he would not have to follow them. He hated to do work.
Brantl v Curators University of
Missouri
WD MO
Rylan Brantl was a resident in neurosurgery at the University of Missouri. He was dismissed for breach of contract and sued for the usual stuff. The court dismissed all due to immunity as it is a state instrument and can not be sued in federal court without the state's consent which was not given. He also would have lost on the statute of limitations. Hope the attorney lost money but he probably took it on an hourly basis. 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.