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California v Jones
Indicted
The California Attorney General has announced charges against Emily Jones, RN. She was working in an assisted living facility in Riverside and allegedly failed to record and notify the family or physician about open ulcers on a patient. For this she is accused of once count of felony elder abuse.
Florida
v Wright
Arraigned
Dr. Jennifer Wright, an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, has been charged with a hate crime. She allegedly followed a man out to his car after he had asked her to maintain social distancing in a supermarket. When at the car she is alleged to have keyed the car and then assaulted the man. She also said to the Hispanic man that this is not Biden's America this is my America. The incident happened on the day of Biden's inauguration. The hospital says she is no longer responsible for patient care at the hospital.
New
York v Deshmukh
Indicted
Dr. Sudipt Deshmukh was indicted on manslaughter charges for allegedly prescribing a lethal mix of opioids that killed a patient. The Rochester physician is accused of not performing exams on patients who showed clear signs of addiction and providing narcotics on request. Top
US v Ahlers
Guilty
Michael Ahlers of Lenexa, Kansas, pleaded guilty of embezzling over $500,000 from the University of Kansas Medical Center. He was the Administrate Officer for the Occupational Therapy Department. He also did not mention the embezzled funds on his income tax form.
Hawaii v Bristol Myers Squibb
Order
The company will pay $834 million to settle allegations that they illegally marketed Plavix by failing to warn of health risks of the drug. The drug was ineffective in about 30% of the population of the state. This will be appealed.
US v Kuper
Sentenced
Dr. Mrk Kuper of Fort Worth, Texas, was sentenced to ten years in prison for defrauding fed med. He admitted billing insurers for services never rendered and required patients to attend bogus appointments in order for them to receive narcotics prescriptions. He allowed his wife to dispense narcotics as well.
US v White
Sentenced
Jeffery White and his son Nicholas were sentenced to 36 months and 13 months respectfully for fraudulently signing up addicts for health insurance by using fake addresses and then admitting them to expensive treatment centers who have the White's kickbacks. They also must repay $26.7 million in restitution.
US v Parker
Sentenced
Jeffery Parker of Rincon, Georgia, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsely charging that another had violated HIPAA.
US v Wolfe
Sentenced
Patrick Wolfe of Belleair Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay $550,000 in restitution for paying kickbacks for leads (signed physician prescriptions) for his DME company.
US v Grant Memorial Hospital
Settlement
The Petersburg, West Virginia, hospital must pay $300,000 for filing false claims to fed med. They billed for services of a non-credentialed person by fraudulently using the name and number of a credentialed person. Top
Community Oncology Alliance v HHS
DC Circuit
The medical group sued to prevent an automatic 2% cut in their Medicare reimbursement for IV cancer treatments and other drugs. They lost in the lower court for lack of jurisdiction and the same result with the DC Circuit for the same reason. They said the law provided no jurisdiction availability to the federal courts. Top
Patients v Campbell County Health
To Be Filed
The Wyoming County accidentally emailed a person an attachment with the information of 900 other patients. NOW they are changing their processes to not allow that to happen again.
Patients v Sutter Buttes Imaging Medical Group
To Be Filed
The group was hacked in 2019 and found out about it in December 2020. Once the horse was out of the gate they are now fixing their firewalls. Too little too late.
Patients v Grand River Medical Group
To Be Filed
The medical group was hacked and 34,000 patients had their information accessed. Another small provider who failed to protect their electronic records.
Patients v Granite Wellness Centers
To Be Filed
Still another small provider is hacked and a mere 15,600 patients had their information exposed. "They are now rolling out new security measures to prevent future attacks". More of too little too late.
Patients v Family Medical Center
To Be Filed
The FBI notified the medical group in November, 2020, and are now notifying almost 80,000 patients of the data theft. The information was in a third party computer that was not part of the practice.
Patients v Covenant HealthCare
To Be Filed
An authorized person has hacked and gotten the information of 45,000 people. This happened in May, 2020. It is now, way too late, setting up a multi step authentication process for employee email accounts. Top
Hoag Memorial Hospital v
Providence Health
Filed
This top hospital in Orange County is in a fight with its owner Providence. Providence did not list Hoag as one of its hospitals on its website. Prior it had terminated the Hoag specialists from the HMO they mange and somehow neglected to tell the patients about the switch for over one month. They also dropped the Hoag urgent care centers from the plan. What started this acrimony was Hoag's stupidity to get in bed with the Catholic organization and Providence's imposition of its tenets on the nonsectarian hospital. Hoag had filed suit to split from Providence and that suit is pending. Top
Andrew v Van
Diest Medical Center
Iowa Supreme Court
Dr. Mark Andrew was a surgeon at the hospital. A local pharmacist contacted the hospital to express concern about the amount of opiates Dr. Andrew was dispensing. The hospital investigated and concluded that either a patient was gaming the system or the physician was providing the large quantity of the med. He was then fired and sued for breach of contract and libel. He never had a peer review or a chance to defend himself. He accused the hospital of libel for the accusation they filed to the Medical Board. The hospital says this was merely opinion. The medical board investigated and said the hospital complaint did not warrant any action and closed the case. The trial judge said whether or not the hospital acted with malice was for a jury to decide. He also found the hospital acted without any information from Dr. Andrew and Dr. Andrew alleges that the administrator told him that he was overpaid and attempted to modify his pay and his duties. The Supreme Court has not yet scheduled a hearing. The hospital is misconstruing the case as the case is about malice not the report being libel.
Oncologists
v Anne Arudel Medial Center
Filed
A group of nine oncologists have had their privileges revoked at the hospital. They were fired from their employment at Anne Arundel Physicians group owned by Luminis Health. The privileges were to exire along with their termination from the group. Luminis has hired seven new oncologists to replace them. The oncologists TRO was denied as the bylaws suggest their denial of requests for privileges is proper. The hospital cut inhouse blood lab and cut staff for the Hem Onc program. the doctors presented a plan to Luminis stating they would partner with Maryland Hematology Oncology but keep their relationship with the hospital. the hospital saw this as an abomination and fired them. The oncologists are also fighting the non compete clauses. Sounds like they screwed up when they signed their contracts.
Dennar
v Tulane Medical School
Filed
Dr. Princess Dennar the director of medicine pediatric residency programs at the school was suspended several months after she filed a lawsuit for racial and gender discrimination by her superiors. The school says the suspensions was due to a 2018 warning citation of the program and after a recommendation by a panel of reviewers. the school goes on to say the Dennar could appeal the decision and she would remain as a faculty member no matter if her position is removed. The ACGME said their action was based on the possible discrimination of the school and this school has been sued prior for the same thing. 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.