November 1, 2021 Recent Legal News
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Texas v Davis
Convicted and Sentenced
William Davis of Hallsville, Texas, was convicted of four counts of capital murder for injecting air into the arteries of patients at the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas. These were post heart surgery. He was sentenced to death.
US v Ballard III
Sentenced
Dr. Thomas Ballard, III of Jackson, Tennessee, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for illegal distribution of hydrocodone that resulted in death. He was trading drugs for sex.
Illinois v Ortega
Sentenced
Fabio Ortega MD, a northern Chicago area OB/GYN was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexual assaults. He had plead guilty to two assaults at NorthShore University HealthSystem. To date nine civil suits have been filed against the physician and the system and six have been settled. Top
US v Bortner
Guilty
Barbara Bortner, the former vice president of marketing at MercyHealth in Wisconsin plead guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion. She was part of a kickback scheme where another would send false inflated invoices and and she would receive kickbacks. She also agreed that she owed the IRS money.
US v Colonial Family Practice, LLC
Settlement
The Columbia, south Carolina medical practice agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that they did unnecessary nuclear cardiac tests. This is a whistleblower case.
Massachusetts v South Bay Mental
Health Center, HIG Growth Partners
Settlement
The Center and the purchasers of the Centers along with the CEO of the Center Peter Scanlon agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that they billed the state Medicaid program for services provided by unlicensed. unqualified and improperly supervised staff members in all the clinics in the state.
US v Lee
Settlement
Jae Lee, of Bellevue, Washington, was the CEO of Nortwest Physicians Laboratory. He plead guilty of in a criminal case a year earlier of making kickbacks to others for referrals for lab testing that was not needed. In this civil case he agreed to pay $1.1 million.
US v Nguyen
Indicted
Dr. Cao Nguyen of Peoria, Arizona, was indicted for fraudulently billing for procedures not necessary, done by people not a physician , billed at higher than called for rates or net performed.
US v Kaiser
Filed
The feds have accused Kaiser of defrauding Medicare to the tne of about $1 billion by illegally adding diagnoses to medical records to increase reimbursement. Watch for a settlement.
UnitedHealthcare v TeamHealth
Filed
The insurer is accusing the hospital emergency room staffing company of purposely upcoding claims.
US v Johnson, Dinkins
Guilty
Marty Johnson of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Keesha Dinkins of Bossier City each plead guilty of fraud. Johnson was the owner of Positive Change Counseling Agency and Dinkins was the supervising manager of the agency. They instructed employees to create false client files and bill for service not performed.
US v Willis, Frank
Settlement
DRs. Robert Willis and Brannon frank the owners of Austin Pain Associates in Austin, Texas, agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle allegations that they and their now defunct company did unnecessary urine drug sample testing due to no clinical need. Top
Li v Medical Board of California
Ca App CT
Dr. Quinn Li had his medical license revoked by the Board. He challenged the decision by petitioning for a writ of administrative mandate. The issue is whether he must be convicted by a weight of the evidence or the preponderance of the evidence. The lower court ruled for the Board saying chamberlain v Ventura County was still good law. The higher court agreed with Li and said that Conservatorship of OB held instead. The reviewing court must view the record using the standard of proof applied by the lower proceedings. The court said the term weight of the evidence can apply to any standard. After all that the court denied Li's writ stating no matter what was involved the court would not have ruled for Li.
LQ v California Hospital Medical
Center
Ca Ct App
LQ was severely injured at birth and sued the medical providers. She settled for $3 million. Medical then asserted a lien on the settlement to recover what they had paid for her care. The court refused the lien saying it was preempted and Medical appealed. The higher court reversed. stating other courts if appeal have allowed the lien if for past medical costs.
Gray v Dignity Health
Ca Ct App
Gray sought care in the ER of a Dignity hospital. He sustained a charge of $800 for the use of the ER and sued for not telling him about the charge before providing the care. the lower court sustained Dignity's demurrer and Gray appealed. The higher court affirmed stating that the fed rules did not require signage about prices related to emergency care. Top
Holmes v UF Health Central Florida
Filed
The Leesburg based organization was sued for failing to keep data safe. They are also accused of keeping data longer than necessary therefore making more data vulnerable to hackers. The hospital was hacked and their EMR was down for almost one month. They want class action status.
US v Johnson
Sentenced
Justin Johnson of Detroit, Michigan, was convicted of fraud for his role in stealing over 65,000 PMI from UPMC employees and selling it on the dark web resulting in false income tax refunds of over $1.7 million.
University of Mississippi v Sullivan,
McMillin, Stevens
Judge Rule
The University prevailed in their suit against Dr. Spencer Sullivan and his co-conspirators Linne McMillin and Kathryn Stevens. they had been accused of theft of hospital records to set up a competing Hemophilia Clinic. They had lied about stealing a list of patients and were caught in their lies. There will now be a separate trial on damages which should be significant. Top
Patients v J&J
Bankruptcy
In a move to force a settlement J&J has transferred its tens of thousand of cases against it stating its talc caused cancer into a separate company and then had that company declare bankruptcy. Top
Carmody v NYU Langone Hospitals
Filed
Dr. Kristin Carmody, the former vice chair of academic affairs for the ED stood up for her residents when they spoke out against racism in the hospital and went against her supervisor in refusing to give out names of residents to be targeted for having difficulty post residency in their hiring. She also was accused of mistreating a VIP's wife. The department defended her care and her charting but she was fired anyway. She is suing for defamation, retaliation and discrimination.
Calcaterra v Iowa Board of
Medicine
Iowa Supreme Court
The medical board, following its own longstanding practice, posted a statement of charges against Dr. Domenico Calcaterra, a cardiothoracic surgeon. The two reached a settlement which the Board posted and the surgeon sued. The lower court agreed with the doctor and the high court agreed also. The law prohibits revealing of investigative information.
Duvall v Novant Health
Jury Decision
David Duvall, a former senior vice resident of marketing was fired just prior to his five year anniversary. He had received only good performance reviews and was replaced by a white woman and a black woman. He sued for discrimination and won due to Novant not proving the they would have fired him regardless of his race. He also showed that Novant fired other white executives that were replaced by a black person or a women. He won $10 million. Watch for other cases to come forward. 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.