August 1, 2019 Recent Legal News
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South Carolina v Ball
Arrested
Dr. James Ball, a pulmonologist in South Carolina, was arrested for Voyeurism. He was found under a house peeping via a hole at a girl taking a shower. He had been arrested before on various complaints relating to exposing his genitals to others and has had his license revoked in the past.
US v Germeil
Captured
Dr. Jeanne Germeil, a South Florida physician, was found in Haiti and is being extradited back to South Florida. She was convicted of selling opioid meds without an approved reason. Top
US v Millcreek Hospital
Settlement
The Pennsylvania hospital agreed to pay $2,452,000 to settle allegations that they billed for medically unnecessary inpatient rehab services.
US v Dahdah
Sentenced
Cindy Dahdah, who co-owned ACCU-BIL in Ohio with her late husband cardiologist Salim Dahdah, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for health care fraud. They scammed the feds by ordering tests and procedures not necessary. They also lied about the results of tests in order to order more tests and procedures.
US v Comprehensive Pain
Specialists
Filed
The feds have accused the pain group also known as Anesthesia Services Assoc. in Tennessee with fraud for over billing acupuncture and other services but mostly from its urine testing lab.
US v Essence
Filed
St. Louis based Essence has been accused of fraud in a federal whistleblower suit. They have been accused of upping reimbursement by increasing severity of illness. They have also been accused of training physicians how to overbill for services.
US v Abrahamson
Sentenced
Dr. Hal Abrahamson, DPM, of Long Island and Queens was sentenced to one year and one day in prison along with a fine of $50,000 and forfeit of $177,000. He had been convicted of fraud for billing for procedures never performed.
US v Lipetz
Guilty
Dr. Mark Lipetz, the owner of the South Maui Clinic in Kihei, plead guilty of healthcare fraud. He wrote prescriptions with false names to amass opioids and give trial samples to patients. He also billed for face to face patient encounter that never happened. He ius to be barred from fed med and give up his DEA license.
US v Eagleville Hospital
Settlement
The hospital agreed to pay $ 2.85 million to settle allegations that they admitted patients to the hospital without justification. This was to get higher reimbursement. The whistleblower got $500,000.
US v Life Spine
Filed
A suit has been filed against Life Spine and its executives Michael Butler and Richard Greiber for paying kickbacks to physicians to use their product. This was in the form of consultant fees, royalties and intellectual property acquisition fees. This is an intervention in a whistleblower suit.
UnitedHealthcare v Lab Companies
Settlement
Five lab companies have agreed to reimburse United $56.2 million for submitting fraudulent claims. They had originally sued United and had the tables turned when United countersued they saw their original claims dismissed.
California v Teva
Settlement
Three pharmaceutical companies agreed to pay the state $70 million to settle allegations that they delayed bringing generics on the market and were paid to do so. The three companies are Teva, Endo and Teikoku Pharma USA. Top
Association for Community
Affiliated Plans v Dept. of Treasury
DC DC
A federal judge allowed the administration's plan to expand the sale of short term health policies. The plaintiff said the insurance would kill Ocare but the judge read it differently saying it has had almost no impact on OCare since it took effect in October 2018.
Gloria A v California
Ca Ct App
Years ago the patient was placed in a nursing home and without her knowledge declared incompetent by her physician. She sued and the trial court found the law violated patient rights and allowed the law to remain until appeal. The court of appeal affirmed the law but stated that patients or their representatives have a say in the decision. Top
Patients v Cancer Centers of
America
To Be Filed
Almost 4000 patient records were compromised by a hack. NOW they are providing further training to employees.
People v Capital One
To Be Filed
In one of the largest hacks ever Capital One announced the personal information of 106 million had been obtained by a hacker. The hacker has been caught. Top
Trinity Health v Anesthesia
Associates of Ann Arbor
Filed
I never thought I would agree with a hospital over a medical group but here it is. The hospital is suing the group over their non-compete clauses. The group is the sole provider for six Trinity hospitals and is terminating its contracts with several large insurers. This, according to Trinity, is a breach of contract as the contract between these two requires the group remain in the networks. Trinity wants to hire the groups physicians to care for their patients but the group refused to allow them to be released from their non-compete clauses. Top
Hardeman v Bayer
Damages
A federal judge reduced the plaintiff reward for damages from $80 million to $25 million. The judge allowed the compensatory damages and reduced the punis. He also refused a plea for a new trial. No money to the plaintiff as the appeals will continue.
Franklin v Wal-Mart
D MD
Franklin filled her Lithium prescriptions at Wal-Mart and then got a prescription from her physician for hydrochlorthiazide. She had a problem with the combination. She sued because the pharmacy had not warned her about the combo and had not checked with her physician about the appropriateness of the two meds at the same time. The court said the pharmacy had no duty to counsel and to get informed consent for the med.
Baker v Health Care Auth of
Huntsville
ND Ala
Baker tried to say that the hospital did not fulfill its duty to her under EMTALA but her lawyer did not say what those duties were and failed to show thatt she was admitted only to show a subterfuge to get around EMTALA. Sounds like a very bad attorney and a patient who wanted money.
Butts v US
4th Circuit
The District court committed error when it ruled a physician was liable for med mal for not transferring a newborn to another hospital with a NICU. The physician was employed by a federally funded hospital in West Virginia and the 4th said physician have multiple treatment choices and are not required to choose the best one. Transferring the child to a higher level of care in the hospital did not breach the standard of care. He did transfer the care to a neonatologist at the hospital.
Brockbank v St. Mark's Hospital
Filed
Plaintiff had heart surgery at the hospital and had bypass. Post-op the canula in her neck had not been clamped and was draining blood into a garbage bag according to the suit. The patient crashed and received multiple transfusions but no one tumbled to the unclamped canula still in place. She died. Write the check.
Armstrong v Mercy Health Fairfield
Hospital
Settlement
Neil Armstrong, the astronaut whose accomplishment of being the first person on the moon we just celebrated, died post heart surgery in 2012. It has now been revealed that the family was paid $6 million to settle the filed suit. He bled when the post-op pacing wires were removed leading to his death.
Pilliod v Bayer
Reduction
The judge in the trial by a plaintiff contending that their lymphoma was caused by Roundup ruled that a decrease in the compensatory and punis were required. The total award went from $2 Billion to $86 million. Still way too much and the plaintiff will still see no money when this is appealed. Top
Peer Review and Employment
Wilson v CNN
California Supreme Court
Suing hospitals in California for any peer review matter just
got very very difficult. California has an anti-SLAPP statute under Civil Code
Section 425.16. The high court just said that it makes no differences the
reasons for suing an entity if that entity can show a protected reason for their
actions the suing party will probably lose. In this case Wilson sued CNN
fired him for unlawful discriminatory and retaliatory reasons. CNN said
they fired him for plagiarism. The court tossed several court of appeal
cases and ruled that there is no exception for discrimination and retaliation
under the statute. Those claims will now in order to proceed meet to have
"minimal merit". Basically if an entity such as a hospital can
show any valid reason for the removal of a provider the provider will lose any
law suit. In this case CNN showed evidence that CNN had a protected
activity of protecting against plagiarism from its reporters and the burden for
Wilson became that he needs to show his claims have "minimal merit" in
order to proceed to trial.
Roberts v Women's and Children's
Hospital
Filed
Cynthia Roberts, RN filed suit after being fired from the hospital. She had worked there for many years. The hospital says she was fired for cause (patient complaint) and had previously been written up. She says it was ageism. The jury says the hospital is right.
Keller v VA
Filed
Dr. Jennifer Keller, anesthesiologist, got outstanding performance reviews right up to the time she was fired for endangering patient safety. Of course there was something else. She complained about harassment and bullying of females at the VA by the chief of the Department. It's hard to believe that any Chief of a Department would do such a thing (tongue in cheek). To think the VA, who has such a sterling record treating whistleblowers with respect, would fire one. 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.