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US v Pickering
Sentenced
Theresa Pickering was practicing in Georgia as a licensed physician practitioner. The problem was she was not licensed. She lost her license in 2014 when she was convicted in Mississippi of a narcotics case. She then relocated to Georgia and started practicing again. She will now go to prison for three years and must pay restitution of almost $50,000.
Indiana v Sneed
Guilty
Connie Sneed of New Albany, Indiana plead guilt to avoid prison time. She is now guilty of practicing as a physician assistant without a license. When she did was to remove a patient's oxygen at a nursing home leading to his death.
US v Navarro
Indicted
Lourdes Nararro of Glendale California and her husband Imran operated Matias Clinical Labs did Covid screenings and billed for same even though they were excluded from fed med programs. They also were accused of billing for unneeded testing.
US v Hinh
Indicted
Anthony Dinh, DO, of Orange County, California, was charged with fleecing the feds of alot of money by billing under the HRSA for testing and treatments for insured individuals. The program was for uninsured people.
US v Wilson
indicted
Latresia Wilson MD, of Ocala, Florida, was accused of purchasing Medicare numbers to bill programs for over the counter Covid tests kits.
US v Watson
Indicted
Melissa Watson DNP, of Sidell, Louisiana, was accused of submitting false claims to the Covid programs for services not rendered.
US v Breault, McDermott
Indicted
Two CRMs Kathleen Breault and Kelly McDermott of Albany, New York, were enrolled as a Covid vaccination site. What they actually were alleged to do was to provide fake Covid vaccination cars.
California v Gevorkian
Indicted
Stephan Gevorkia of Studio City, was indicted on charges of impersonating a physician. He opened a medical clinic in North Hollywood to do lab tests, advise patients along with treatments. He is not licensed.
US v Arona
Guilty
Dr. Audrey Arona of Gainseville, Georgia, plead guilty to charges of putting into interstate commerce a drug containing HCG illegally in oder to get weight loss money. She is to pay $65,000.
Wisconsin v Shariff
Indicted
Ysurf Shariff a nurse at a mental health hospital has been accused of having inappropriate contact with a person under 16.
California v Heaps
Sentenced
Dr. James heaps has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was previously convicted of sexually abusing female patients while working at the University of California, Los Angeles. Top
US v May
Sentenced
Joe David May MD of Alexander, Arkansas, was sentenced to 102 months in prison for fraud. He was also ordered o pay over 4.63 million in restitution to TRICARE. He was convicted at trial of falsifying prescriptions for compounding drugs. He also received kickbacks for signed prescriptions for patients he did not know.
US v Meharry Medical college
Settlement
The college agreed to pay $almost $101,000 to settle allegations that they billed for visits that were actually performed by resident physicians who were unsupervised.
US v Omidi
Sentenced
Dr. Julian Omidi of West Hollywood, California, was sentenced to seven years in prison. He is a former dermatologist who lost his medical license because of lying on his application. He was convicted of fraud for his running of the notorious 1-800-GET-Thin Lap Band surgery business.
US v Johns Hopkins Health System
Settlement
Hopkins agreed to pay $5 million to settle allegations that Sibley Hospital billed for services for cardiologists who where being paid above market rate.
US v Zamora, Zamora
Indicted
Caroline and Rommel Zamora of Houston, Texas, were indicted for fraud. It is alleged that they paid kickbacks to patients and physicians to get home health patients for their business.
US v Cale
Guilty
Scott Cale DDS, of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, plead guilty to charges of fraud. He admitted using his number to bill for another dentist who was barred from billing and then paying him a percentage of the monies.
US v Stutzman
Settlement
Kelly Stutzman and her business K-ASSIST of New Haven, Connecticut, agreed to pay $234,000 to settle allegations that she billed for services actually done by an unlicensed person.
US v Dreyer
Settlement
Dr. Jason Dryer agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle allegations that he billed for unneeded neurosurgical procedures while at Providence St. Mary's Medical Center in Walla Walla, Washington. He resigned from the staff and was not reported to the NPDB. He is now barred from fed med for nine years. Watch for the med mal claims that will surely come for both the hospitl and the physician.
US v Mirza
Guilty
Dr. Muhammad Mirza of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, plead guilty to charges of fraudulently billing Amtrak heath plan for services not needed. This is the same doctor who had his medical license suspended for allegation of doing poorly performed surgeries. He also sued Yelp for bad reviews. That also did not work out well as he got no money but did get two reviewers to be made to take down their posts.
Texas v Hunter
Sentenced
Catharina Hunter of Kendall County, Texas was sentenced to 8 years in prison for practicing medicine without a license. She used a license of a pediatric surgeon in Chicago with a similar name. Top
Doe v Lehigh Valley Health Network
Filed
A woman is suing to make Lehigh pay $5 million ransom to hackers of their EMR. The reason is the hackers have gotten hold of nude pictures of breast cancer patients who were unaware of their existence.
Patients v Tenet Healthcare,
Conifer
Filed
A class action suit has been filed against the companies for failure to take security precautions that allowed a hacker breach.
Patients v One Brooklyn Health
To Be Filed
The hospital system had their system hacked and patient information taken including social security numbers.. They say they are NOW looking into its data security protection policies.
US v Harvey et al
Guilty
Roderick Harvey along with Kirby Dandridge, Sylvia Taylor, Kara Thompson, Melanie Russell and Adrianna Taber of Methodist Hospital in Memphis plead guilty of stealing medical information and paying or being paid for same. Top
Doe v University of Pennsylvania
Hospital
Verdict
A jury awarded $183 million to a child born with CP. The suit said they should have done a C-Section on the mother. The hospital said it did all things right and that the child had brain injury prior to arrival at the hsopital. The large figure is due to the ongoing care needed. This will not stand on appeal. Top
Moreno v Mahaska Health
Partnership
Filed
Dr. Amanda Moreno alleges she was filed from the county hospital due to the fact she is a woman and an atheist. She says the new CEO and the CMO prayed with patients who did not want it and did a PowerPoint presentation on why they should vote for Trump for President. When she and two other female ED physicians were fired and replaced with a male who had no ED experience is when she filed the suit.
Hoshour v Providence Portland
Medical Center
Filed
Benjamin Hoshour, RN, is suing the Oregon hospital for firing him after he reported poor medical care. He raised issues of insufficient nursing ratios patient safety and inaccurate timekeeping prior to his termination. 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.