November 1, 2022 Recent Legal News
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US v Ratanaprasatporn
Charged
Brooklyn physician Dr. Somsri Ratanaprasatporn along with her office manager Leticia Smith and three pharmacists were arraigned for distribution of narcotics and money laundering.
California v Heaps
Guilty
Dr. James Heaps, the former UCLA physician, was found guilty on five of 21 counts of sexual assaults. UCLA has already paid out about $700 million for Heap's misdeeds.
North Carolina v Hayes
Charged
Johnathan Hayes, RN, was charged with homicide for allegedly injecting several people with insulin while working at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
US v Pantechev
Sentenced
Gueorgui Pantchev of West Los Angeles was sentenced to 18 years in prison. His crime was stalking four female physicians at two VA hospitals.
South Carolina v Steele
Arrested
Alyssa Steele of Anderson, South Carolina, was arrested for impersonating a nurse. she had worked at seven nursing and assisted living facilities. This does not speak well of the credentialing at those institutions.
US v Jacobson
Settlement
Dr. Barry Jacobson, a pediatric dentist in New York and New Jersey along with his corporation HQRC (PDS Management Solutions) has agreed to pay $753,457 to settle allegations that he performed and billed for unneeded pulpotomies on pediatric patients.
US v Ozigi
Convicted
Abudul Ozigi was hired to be a physician by Margaret Arise, the owner of several home health agencies in the Houston area. The problems is that Ozigi is not licensed to practice in the country. She qualified patients for home health even though they did not need it.
US v Keepers
Sentenced
Dr. Jerry Keepers of Kingwood, Texas, was sentenced to 36 months of supervised probation. He was guilty of accepting illegal kickbacks for prescribing compound medications that were not necessary.
US v Sutter Health
Settlement
Sutter Health agreed to pay $13 million to settle allegations that they billed fed med for toxicology lab tests actually done by an outside lab.
US v Cigna
Filed
A whistleblower suit was filed against Cigna for what is alleged as an upcoding of patient's illnesses so get more money out of Part C Medicare. Cigna is accused of having nurse practitioners do home visits but not comprehensive physicals in order to diagnose the severe illnesses the patients were supposed to have had.
US v Rico, Diaz
Sentenced
Analay Rico of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Daylen Diaz of Miami were sentenced to 40 and 24 months in prison respectively. They were also ordered to repay over $2 million. They worked for Tellus Research and falsified data to make it appear patients were in a study when they were not.
Florida v Montalvo, Garmendia,
Portela
Indicted
The three Miami residents were charged with fabricating and falsifying clinical drug trial. They allegedly enrolled people into trials that were not eligible in order to collect money. They all were part of AMB Research Center in Miami.
US v CHC Holdings dba Carter
Healthcare
Settlement
The Oklahoma home health agency agreed to pay along with it's officers $2.1 million to settle allegations that they paid kickbacks to physicians to refer patients and then billed fed med for the services.
US v Duarte
Convicted
A Chicago psychologist Renato Duarte was convicted by a jury for billing for services not rendered.
New York v Mehdi
Settlement
Dr. Ahmad Mehdi of Groton, New York, agreed to pay $568,750 to settle allegations that he up-coded and billed for smoking cessation services not documented.
US v Canchola
Dr. Daniel Canchola of Flower Mound, texas, plead guilty of illegally signing orders for DME that was not medically necessary.
Khodadadian v Mount Sinai
Filed
Dr. Shawn Khodadadian, a gastroenterologist and building owner, sued the hospital for back rent plus interest for not leaving when the lease expired.
US v Iredell Physicians Network
Settlement
The North Carolina subsidiary of Iredell Health System agreed to pay $138,612 to settle allegations that they owed the money to fed med due to an overpay.
Community Health v Sante Health
System
Filed
The Fresno, California, hospital filed against a physician group alleging that Sante did not distribute or account for various grants that they had been awarded by Community.
US v Alario
Guilty
Dr. Frank Alario of Delrey Beach, Florida, pleaded guilty to illegally disclosing patient information to pharmaceutical representatives who promoted compound meds.
Vigil v John Muir Medical Group
Ca App Ct
A former employee of the hospital physician group downloaded and retained PMI. This led to the suit as a class action. The trial court ruled no class action since there were not common issues and each class member would have to show their information was actually viewed. Virgil appealed and lost again. The appellate court ruled that under CMIA loss alone is not sufficient but actually viewing is required.
Ruloph v Mercy Hospital-Fort Smith
8th Circuit
Plaintiff had dislocated left knee with no blood flow to her lower leg. Mercy had no vascular surgeon so the arranged for trasport to Wahingon Regional Medical center who accepted the transfer. However, while in transit Washington realized it had no vascular surgeon available. Upon her arrival to Washington she was helicoptered to another hospital but die to the time lapse she lost her leg. She sued the original hospital for EMTALA violations. The courts ruled that Mercy reasonably believed the transport was legit so no EMTALA violation.
Snow v Dasher
Jury Decision
A Los Angeles jury awarded $2.6 million to plaintiff. The plaintiff's father died from undiagnosed pneumonia and empyema. He had sought care from a local ED 10 days before his death with right shoulder pain worse with deep breaths. No infection was noted. The day prior to his death he saw Dr, Dasher, his primary physician. No congestion was found. Dasher did not get the prior records and treated him with muscle condition medication.
Monk v Lakeland Regional Health
Medical Center
Settlement
In an interesting case the plaintiff had laproscopic surgery with closure with permanent and not absorbable sutures. She had abdomen pain and other complaints and eventually had the sutures removed. This broke in the press and now there are 12 cases of which 4 have been settled.
Neal v Ironwood Family Practice
Jury Verdict
Dr. Thomas Neal worked at the Ironwood practice in Idaho for many years. The practice entered into an agreement with Kootenai Health to partner with its residency program. Neal objected to the new admitting requirements and offered a compromise which was rejected and he was fired. He sued and won $879,000.
Partin v Baptist Healthcare
SD Ind
In one of the dumbest cases I have read Dr. Putin was removed as an ED physician by Baptist over a dispute about patient care. He sued under EMTALA. He had no course of action under EMTALA and the case was dismissed. Too bad as I would have liked to see more money go out of the attorney's pocket.
Rake v Regents University of
Califoornia
Filed
Dr. Christopher Rake refused to get a Covid shot and after being placed on administrative leave in October 2021, he was terminated in March 2022. He is suing for wrongful termination.
RE New Yourk City
New York Supreme Court
New York City was ordered by the state supreme court to re-hire all those fired for refusing to get a Covid shot. It also ordered back pay for all.
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.