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Ohio v Husel
Dr. William Husel was arrested several years ago on charges of murder for the deaths in his ICU of 14 patients from fentenyl overdoses. The question was always intent. There was a great exchange post-trial of two physicians who testified for both sides explaining why the testified why they did.
Virginia v Klein
Arrested
PA Jacob Klein was arrested for the murder of PA Philip Rabadi after stalking he and his wife for three days. They all worked at St. peters Hospital in New York.
US v Rogers
Sentenced
Garren Rogers of Slidell, Louisiana, was sentenced to 120 months in prison. He pleaded guilty of unlawful possession of oxycodone with intent to distribute. The other co-conspirators will be sentenced later.
Texas v Hotze
Indicted
Dr. Steven Hotze of Houston, Texas, was indicted on unlawful restrain and aggravated assault. He is accused of funding part of a plot but denies any involvement. Top
US v Raffai
Indicted
Dr. Elemer Raffai of New York was indicted fro fraud for allegedly signing order forms for DME services that were not medically necessary.
US v 21 People
Indicted
The feds have indicted 21 people across the country for fraud relating to Covid. They each had different schemes but all allegedly broke the law.
US v Beck
Indicted
Dr. Eric Beck of Huntsville, Alabama, was indicted for health care fraud. He allegedly billed for electro-diagnostic tests even if he did not do them.
US v Morgan, Weir
Settlement
Dr. John Morgan and Paul Weir along with their company Care Plus Management agreed to pay $7.2 million to resolve kickback allegations.
US v Mesquias, McInnis
Indicted
Rodney Mesquias and Henry McInnis from Harlinger, Texas, were charged with fraud. They are both serving time for fraud after being convicted of crimes related to hospice and home health services. This latest suit is for money damages.
US v Mohammed
Sentenced
Aleah Mohammed owned and operated five pharmacies in the Queens are of New York. She was convicted of billing for drugs not dispensed or was dispensed when the pharmacy was no longer registered by the state. She was sentenced to 78 months in prison.
US v Baddick
Indicted
Dr. Peter Baddick, III of Lehighton, Pennsylvania, was indicted for issuing medically unnecessary prescriptions for Subsys.
FTC v Saint James School of
Medicine
Settlement
The Caribbean school school agreed to pay $1.2 million toward refunds and debt cancellation for students harmed by their deceptive marketing tactics. They falsified the schools medical exam test pass rate and residency matching.
West Virginia v J&J
Settlement
The state will receive $99 million from the pharmaceutical company for their part in the opioid epidemic. The settlement was in the third week of the trial.
US v Raffai
indicted
Dr. Elemer Raffai, an orthopod in New York was indictedd on fraud. He is accused of writing prescriptions for DME after telemedicine interviews with patients and not doing a good faith exam. He was paid per interview.
US v DaVita, Tairy
Not Guilty
The justice department has lost a high profile case. they accused DaVita and its CEO Kent Tairy f criminal antitrust violations by conspiring with rivals not to poach each others employees. The jury said not guilty.This is the second loss on this issue by the feds.
US v Elfenbein
Indicted
Dr. Ron Elfenbein, of Maryland was indicted of overcharging fed med. He is accused of billing for covid tests along with lucrative an non-necessary services as 30 minute visits. He is alleged to seeing the patients for under five minutes.
US v Middle Georgia Family Rehab,
Hicks
USDC
The court found that the company and its founder Brenda Hicks violated the law by billing for services rendered by employees that had already left the employee of the business. They admitted doing so but said is was just a mistake.
US v 11 Defendants
Guilty
After being charged all 11 plead guilty in a Spectrum/Reliable healthcare fraud. According to court records several lab companies paid kickbacks to medical professionals to order medically unnecessary lab tests. The founder of Spectrum and United labs made them physician owned and only gave ownership to those who ordered enough tests. Those involved are Jeffery Madison, founder of United and Spectrum; Mark Boggers COO of Spectrum and United; Biby Kurian co-founder of Reliable Labs; Abraham Phillips co founder of Reliable; Dr. Jose Maldonado of Laredo; Dr. Eduardo Canova in Laredo; Keith Wichinski, NP in san Antonio; David Lizcano, owner of a marketing firm ; Laura Ortiz sister of Lizcano and employee in the marketing firm; Juan Rojas owner of another marketing firm; Sherman Kennerson an investor in United.
US v Harden
Sentenced
Joy Harden of Columbia, Mississippi, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for billing fed med for DME never ordered. She ws also ordered to pay full restitution.
US v Johnson, Dinkins
Sentenced
Marty Johnson of Shreveport, Louisiana was sentenced to 60 months in prison and Keesha Dinkins of Bossier City was sentenced to 24 months in prison. They had plead guilty to fraud for their part in billing fed med for mental health services not medially necessary.
US v Lee
Sentenced
Dr. Donald Woo Lee of Temecula, California, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for fraud. He repackaged single use catheters and reused them on patients but charged as if they were new catheters. He also billed for unnecessary procedures and used inappropriate billing codes. He is also order to pay $4.5 million in restitution.
US v Schenker
Settlement
Dr. Josef Schenker of New York agreed to pay $564,217 to settle allegations that he and his two urgent care centers submitted false claims to Medicare for services not provided in dong Covid vaccines and tests. Top
St. Helena Clear Lake Hospital v
Becerra
DC Circ
The hospital sought reimbursement for the cost of maintaining non-emergency room specialists on call. The Medicare contactor denied the request and it was appealed to the Provider Reimbursement Review Board since law requires the hospital to provide certain specialty services and to stabilize patients the cost to keep the physician on call should be reimbursed. They lost there and again in the USDC for DC. The court said ER physicians can stabilize patients for transfer and specialists are not necessary for this.
Daza, Pope, Healthcare Freedom
Defense Fund v Biden
USDC
A Florida judge has said the CDC did not follow adequate procedures and did not have jurisdiction to put on a mask mandate on public transportation. This is the latest in judges over the past 5 1/2 years issuing national decisions from local jurisdictions. Following this decision the major airlines and rail ditched the mask mandate requirements immediately. The several days later the CDC decided that the mandate should be reinstated and the justice department has then filed an appeal. However, the result is immaterial to the mandate as it will never be enforced again.
Torres v Adventist Health Systems
Ca Ct App
Kasondra Torres went to the ED of the hospital in Hanford, California, where she received treatment and was billed a gross amount of $23,455. This did not tell her about an ugly hospital fee charged and not disclosed. The lower and upper courts both said the hospital was devious but that Torres could not show all the elements necessary.
Cummings v Pemier Rehab Keller
United States Supreme Court
The plaintiff is deaf and blind and asked for a ASL interpreter at the facility but was told to use written notes, lip reading or gesturing. She went elsewhere and sued the business for damages. I can't believe this made it to the US Supremes but it did. The high court ruled 6-3 that businesses that receive fed health money can not be sued for discrimination under the ACA when the harm is not financial. Top
Angulo v SuperCare Health
Filed
The plaintiff and the attorney involved want a class action for this case. There was a data breach in 2021 affecting over 300,000 individuals. The suit says that the defendant was negligent for not foreseeing this and not training their employees all of which are against the federal laws. However, a recent Supreme Court decision states that the plaintiff must have suffered a concrete injury and this must be shown to be caused by the defendant's conduct.
Patients v Newman Region
Health
To Be Filed
In another email breach the Kansas facility has said there was compromise of a number of accounts. Top
Plaintiffs v South Shore Hospital
Filed
Three suits have been filed against the Chicago hospital for a data breach in December, 2021. The breach exposed the files and information on over 116,000 people. After the breach the hospital said they will strengthen their password requirements and will enable multifactor authentication, all things they should have done earlier. 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.