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Ohio v Barton
Arrested
Two physicians at the Boardman, Ohio, St. Elizabeth hospital had a fight over patient care. A heart physician called Dr. Barton as to why he stopped a patient med that the cardiologist prescribed. The two then had words and according to the police report Barton shoved the cardiologist. Barton was booked on assault. Barton is a non-employed nephrologist. Top
Patients v DNF Mediucal Centers
To Be Filed
An employee diverted 846 blood samples to a lab not contracted with the hospital. The hospital did not catch this and they say it was not their fault. Wrong, it was and is.
US v Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Settlement
The organization has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle allegations that they billed for office visits along with procedures the same day, a no no.
US v Udochi
Settlement
Dr. Njideka Udochi and her Millennium Family Practice in Howard County, Maryland, has agreed to pay $ 660,000 to the feds to settle allegations that she falsely billed for neurostimulators but was really doing acupuncture, a non reimbursable procedure. She was using a code to bill for an implantable device which Medicare reimburses at $6255 per procedure.
US v Scott
Sentenced
Ivan Scott of Kissimmee, Florida was sentenced to 10 years in orison for fraud. He was convicted by a jury of using his telemarketing business to target elderly people to get expensive cancer screening genetic testing. He had telemedicine physicians approve the tests even though they were not the patient's physician. He then paid per referral, another no no.
US v Esformes
Retrial
Miami's Philip Esformes was convicted of fraud and spent 4 years in prison prior to President Trump granting him clemency. He was not pardoned. The feds now want to retry him on the charges that were not resolved in the first trial due to a deadlocked jury on those counts. Think they are a little miffed at the clemency? Top
Plaintiffs v Health First
Filed
A group of plaintiffs want a class action suit against Health First for their allegedly monopolistic practices. Five years ag the system was sued by some physicians for the same thing and a settlement was reached. The new suit says that following the last one they system continued their monopoly by acquiring Melbourne Internal Medicine and by decreasing competition and raising prices.
Pacira BioSciences v American
Society of Anestesiologists
Filed
The makers of a pain med is suing because the physician's medical journal had an article stating their product was not that good.
FTC v Nepute
Filed
Quickwork and its owner Dr. Eric Nepute, DC were sued by the FTC under a new law forbidding deceptive marketing fake Covid treatments. Nepute allegedly was marketing products containing zinc and Vitamin D as proven to prevent Covid.
Employees v Kaiser Permanente
Settlement
Kaiser has agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle allegations that they illegally denied thousand of black employees equal pay and promotions. The plaintiffs claimed that racial discrimination has been going on for decades. The four plaintiffs will get a portion of the money after legal expenses are taken out. Kaiser must also do other things via a third party to make sure all is kosher.
Doe v Ohio
6th Circuit
Ohio passed a law that prohibited physicians from terminating a pregnancy because of Downs Syndrome. The law was challenged in federal court and the lower court issued a preliminary injunction against the law taking affect. This was appealed to the 6th Circuit and the panel in a 2-1 decision upheld the decision of the district court. An en banc hearing was then held and they overturned the en banc panel stating the law was legal since a woman could just go to th next physician and not tell them about the Downs and get an abortion. This case is not over. Top
Patients v Montefiore
To Be Filed
The hospital has fired an employee who imappropriatly viewed records for ONE YEAR. This is the second emoloyee terminated this year for this breach.
Patients v Med-Data
To Be Filed
A breach at the patient billing vendor has resulted in at least five organizations having their patients intruded upon. This was found by an outside person inquiring why their patient's data was online.
Patients v Insight Global
To Be filed
The vendor was paid to conduct contact tracing in Pennsylvania disregarded security protocols and created unauthorized documents according to the state Health Department. This compromised 72,000 people's information.
Patients v Doctor's Medical Center
To Be Filed
The Modesto, California, hospital compromised patient's PHI by publishing it online for almost two years before it was found. Such negligence.
Katz v Einstein Healthcare Network
Filed
A class action suit was filed after a 2020 email hack. the hospital failed to notify the patients for six months regarding the attack. The hack compromised almost 314,000 patients. The plaintiff claims the health system fialed to protect and safeguard the patient's information. Top
AB v Oregon Health and Sciences
University
Settlement
The university will pay a social worker $285,000 to settle allegations that Dr. Jason Campbell, an anesthesiology resident AKA Dr. Tick Tok, sent her sexually charged texts and physically assaulted her. Also AB stated that Esther Choo, an ED physician at OHSU did not report Campbell's behavior. Choo responded that she wasn't required to as AB was no an student and Campbell was not her immediate supervisor. 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.