November 1, 2020 Recent Legal News
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Missouri v Williams
Arrested
X-ray tech Ryan Williams got the patient's information from the hospital and called the woman to return to the hospital for a CT scan. She did so and was sexually groped while on the CT table. There was never a CT scan done.
Pennsylvania v Green
Guilty
Dr. Richard Green of Johnstown plead guilty of involuntary manslaughter for over prescribing drugs to a patient who died. He also plead guilty of submitting improper claims to Medicaid. He has voluntarily givenup his DEA and state medial licenses. Top
Lieberman v Methodist Le
Bonheur Healhcare
Settlement
The former Methodist President Jeff Lieberman and a board member vice chancellor at University of Tennessee David Stern have filed suit against the hospital for knowingly defrauding fed and state healthcare. They accuse the system of paying physicians under a kickback and drug profit sharing and billing fed med for those services. They accuse Methodist of paying management fees based on referrals and funneling money to pay off personal debt. The suit alleges that the hospital got drugs under the 340D program at deep discounts and the physicians billed for them at high rates creating a big slush fund for the hospital to use to pay the physicians.
US v Ford
Indicted
Furman Ford of Raleigh was indicted for billing fed med for services not delivered. A co-conspirator plead guilty several months ago. They allegedly billed for mental health services never delivered.
US v Merit Medical Systems
Settlement
The Utah company has agreed to pay $18 million to settle allegations that they billed for services for which they paid kickbacks for the use of the products.
US v Bergland
Indicted
Four Texas health executives were indicted for fraud. They are Steven Bergland and Aaron Cerpanya who owned Elite Healthcare and Adam Gardner and Cody Waddell who owned MedHealth Solutions. They are accused of setting up a false lab and billing for tests never done.
US v Medtronic
Settlement
The company agreed to pay $9.2 million to settle allegations that they improperly paid Wilson Asfora, a South Dakota neurosurgeon, for social events at a restaurant that Asfora owned. They allegedly did that to induce him to use their SynchroMed infusion pumps. That's a lot of money for some free dinners. Top
National Assoc. of Community
Health Centers v HHS
Filed
The Associations wants a dispute resolution center set up to help with perceived violations of the 340B program. The HHS had been directed to set up this program in 20110 but never did. The reason for this dustup is the drug companies stating they will only give the drugs to covered entities not contract pharmacies. The drug companies believe the pharmacies are not passing the discounts on and want to remedy this.
ACEP v Blue Cross
11th Circuit
The insurance companies are now liable for claims after the Circuit Court ruled that they misapplied the prudent layperson standard when determining services rendered were an emergency medical condition. Gonna cost them millions.
US v Purdue Pharma
Settlement
The company agreed to settle civil and criminal complaints by the payment of a huge amount of money. They will pay a fine of $3.544 BILLION and an additional $2 BILLION in forfeiture along with a separate civil payment by the Sackler family of $225 million.
US v Dunlap
Arrested
Cortney Dunlap, a licensed counselor of Avon, Connecticut, was arrested and charged with health care fraud. He is accused of providing more than 24 hours of psychotherapy on 67 occasions, a rare feat. Top
Patients v McLaren Oakland
To Be Filed
Over 2000 patients had their personal date compromised due to their negligently allowing a file with an unsecured link to be on a computer.
Holly v Alta Newport Hospital
CD CA
The District Court dismissed forever the plaintiffs suit for an employee improperly disclosing the patients PMI. She did not allege any damages actual nor non-speculative. Another case of an attorney should have known better.
US v Aetna
Settlement
Aetna has agreed to pay $1 million for three patient breaches in 2017. They had previously paid $17 million to settle a class action related to a breach and an additional $935,000 to California for a breach and $600,000 to other states. Might be cheaper to do security. Top
Harvey v Department of Correction
Connecticut Supreme Court
In what may be legal malpractice, a suit was not filed until two months after the statute of limitations has run. An inmate sued for malpractice and filed as required a notice to sue. He died and the family sued 14 months later. The statute is 12 months. The lower courts and the Supreme court all agreed tough luck.
Musselman v Target Pharmacu
Minn Ct App
Plaintiff was prescribed bupropion at 150 mg once a day and then doubling that if he responded well. The doctor sent both prescriptions to the Target pharmacy who prescribed only the 300 mg dose. He got suicidal thoughts and called his physician who told him to only take the 150 mg dose. Two years late he sued for multitude of wrongs and lost on them all due to failure on the causation and breach .
Mills v Janssen Pharmaceutical
Ca Ct App
Janssen was sued for the drug Risperdal causing gynecomastia. The court and the appellate court both said the labeling was correct and there is no case.
Patients v Brighton Rehabilitation
and Wellness Center
Filed
Patients were found to sue the Pennsylvania nursing home for the deaths of people due to Covid. They accuse the home of chronically understaffing and not have an infection control program.
Ortega-Santos v Hospital Del
Maestro
D Puerto Rico
The court tossed the case under EMTALA. The patient went to the ED for rib pain and dyspnea. He was seen, examined x-rayed nd discharged with meds. The next day the x-ray was read to show pleural effusion. No one from the hospital contacted him regarding the findings. Later he went to a different hospital and was in ICU for 11 days. He then sued all for med mal and EMTALA violations as is the norm in Puerto Rico. The court said he was stable and may not have had an emergency condition to begin with. Top
Mehlman v Cincinnati
Children's Hospital
Filed
Dr. Charles Mehlman raised multiple concerns about fellow surgeon Dr. Abubabker Durran who fled back to Pakistan to avoid the multiple charges against him. The hospital retaliated against Mehlman according to the suit in multiple ways including a recent 14 day suspension. This will not turn out well fo the hospital as they will have relive their mistakes over and over again.
Gabros v Shore Medical Center
D New Jersey
In an interesting case both the hospital and the physician filed a joint motion to seal an opinion and docket entries containing NPDB reports. The court refused stating stating since the reports are themselves evidence in a matter pending in a court and so lose immunity for disclosure. The court also refused to do the same for earlier reports to the state medical board. The court is wrong. 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.