March 15, 2023 Recent Legal News
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Pennsylvania v Kunkel
Arrested
Dr. Jessie Kunkel of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, was arrested for allegedly writing prescriptions for some of the meds. In some cases she picked up the meds herself.
Missouri v Hall
Arrested
Jennifer Hall, a respiratory therapist was accused of murdering David Harper by administering succinylcholine. Harper was battling severe bronchitis and was in Hendrick Medical Center in Chillicothe, Missouri. This is the second murder charge against her. She is suspected in the deaths of many more.
Ohio v Fofana
Sentenced
Aminata Fofana, LPN, was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to give up her license. Her crime was involuntary manslaughter for removing a trach tube to clean in and not reattaching the tubing leading to a patient death. A civil suit against the nursing home where this occurred is pending.
US v Murphy, Murphy
Sentenced
Dr. Mark Murphy of Lewisburg, Tennessee, and his wife Jennifer Murphy were sentenced to twenty years in prison each for distributing narcotics with no medical reason. Also the ordered many millions of dollars of unnecessary items and billed fed med. The Murphys were ordered to pay $50 million in restitution.
US v Cao
Sentenced
Dr. Robert Cao of Lafayette, Louisiana, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for selling narcotics without medical necessity. The crime occurred while he was practicing in the Washington, DC area. He wrote prescriptions to one patient who died after ingesting the pills Dr. Cao had prescribed for him.
California v Hensel
Sentenced
Dr. Bruce Hensel, a former on-air medical consultant in LA had plead guilty to to soliciting nude pictures from a child. He was sentenced to registering as a sex offender and two years of probation. Top
US v Saratoga Center, Melohn, Schwartz, Vegh, Jaffa
Settlement
The Saratoga, New York, skilled nursing facility along with Leon Melohn, Alan Schwartz, Jeffrey Vegh and Jack Jaffa agreed to pay $over $7 million to settle allegations that they filed false claims for Medicaid services that were worthless. The Saratoga Center closed in the past.
US v Cameron-Ehlen Group, Ehlen
Guilty
A jury convicted a lens maker and its owner Paul Ehlers for giving kickbacks to opthalmologists to use their lenses. They are to pay $43 million.
US v Penn State Health
Settlement
Penn has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that they billed for both infusion services and E&M codes for the same visit. That is illegal under Medicare.
US v Jain
Settlement
Dr. Ashok Jain of Houston, Texas, area and his companies agreed to pay $3 million to settle allegations that he and his psychiatric companies pressured patients to accept unnecessary treatments, and billing for those treatments along with falsifying treatment records.
US v Silcoff
Settlement
Dr. Howard Silcoff and Dryden Family Medical Practice of the Syracuse, New York, area agreed to pay $70,000 to settle allegation that he prescribed narcotics without a medical reason and falsyl billed fed med for this. Top
Washington v Patient
Arrested
A Washington woman has active TB and has refused treatment and isolation. The state has now rightfully arrested her and she is to be sent to a specially designated facility at the Pierce County jail for isolation and treatment. Top
Patients v CentraState Medical
Center
Filed
So far six class action suits have been filed against the hospital over a cyberattack that compromised almost 618,000 patients. The suits are split between being filed in state and federal courts. Top
Jones v Delaware County Department of
Emergency Services
Filed
Tamika Jones had Covid and severe respiratory distress. Her family called 911 and two EMT came to the house but did not enter. They did not check vitals or do anything except to tell her to stay at home. She died the next day. The family is now suing for wrongful death and gross negligence. This will be a tough case as there are laws in the state that limit suits against providers during the pandemic.
Ryan v White, UCLA Regents
Filed
According to the filing Bernetta Higgins was discharged from Harbor-UCLA and told by Dr. White to go to the ED and complain of chest pains. She actually felt fine at the time. She was readmitted and had a surgery to implant two devices that would address "a tear in her aorta lining" She was told it would take 90 minutes. It actually took all day and she had a stroke. White and another doctor were actually being paid by Medtronic for the surgery. The admitting doctor, Timothy Ryan, said no training was done during the surgery and she did not need the surgery in the first place. I do not know what injury Ryan suffered in this case. Top
Mason, Buffalo Bone and Joint v
Wyoming County Community Health System
Filed
Dr. Paul Mason is the managing member of the orthopedic group. In February, 2022, the group had its contract terminated with the hospital. Mason and his partners joined the hospital in 2014 and in 2017 had a contract that would allow Mason to be full time surgiclal services and he was made CMO. The contract was extended in 1019 until 2024. The problems stemmed from a rift with a new CEO who started to shut him out of communications. Mason was contacted by hospital staff regarding another surgeon being potentially intoxicated and doing surgery. Mason went to the administration but nothing was done. He then reported the incident to the state. After that the suit says there was more retaliation against Mason. The group was terminated for allegedly breach of contract. Mason in the meantime joined another hospital.
Singh, Nikeleit v University of
North Carolina Heath Care System
MDNC
The two tenured professors in pathology had their privileges immediately revoked subject to a hearing. The system wrongly reported that there was a permanent revocation but then corrected it to indefinite. The court ruled against the two in all counts citing the sovereign immunity for the public university. The claims for revocation of their privileges were not ripe since they have not had their hearing. They also had no constitutional right to their titles or salaries to support their due process claim. 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.