Stories about physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in lawsuits—as either a plaintiff or a defendant—or accused of breaking the law. Various legal updates or unusual stories in the news may land here.
HHS’s 340B drug discount program is set to shift to a rebate model on New Year’s Day. But a lawsuit and temporary restraining order filed by the AHA and others may block the change from going live on time.
Eric Cordes, MD, 63, of Simi Valley, California, was a highly respected diagnostic specialist with Adventist Health Simi Valley and Focus Medical Imaging.
Authorities allege the pharmacy chain gave patients more insulin than prescribed and then billed Medicare and Medicaid for the full amounts. This allegedly occurred for more than a decade.
A psychiatric patient suffering from hallucinations injured employees at University of Iowa Health Care during a physical altercation. Clinicians restrained and sedated him successfully, but the cocktail of drugs allegedly caused his heart to stop, leading to a permanent brain injury. The case has been settled out of court.
Surveillance footage and a 911 call were shown during a preliminary hearing in which the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was present. Hearings will continue this week in a New York state court, where a judge will rule on defense motions to exclude certain evidence from trial.
The information was deleted to comply with an executive order from President Trump that censored content related to “gender ideology.” However, a federal judge has ordered the content restored as a court battle looms.
A report from the Guardian details how the VA removed language protecting patients from discrimination based on political affiliation and lifestyle. The department denies that there has been any actual change in policy.
Law firm Wright & Schulte said they filed a legal complaint on behalf of patients, pointing to the health system’s alleged lack of transparency and negligence in protecting data as the basis for the lawsuit.
Faranak Firozan, 47, is a cybersecurity expert at Nvidia who regularly spoke on the topic of “cyber laundering.” Prosecutors in California allege she submitted fraudulent medical claims to an employer-sponsored insurance plan, bilking Cigna out of $100,000.
Sixty-one-year-old Lilit Gagikovna Baltaian, MD, is on the run after being convicted of fraudulently billing Medicare alongside co-conspirators at home health agencies. A federal court in California sentenced her to 54 months in prison.
Dr. Prateek Joshi, with the NHS hospital in Derby, England, was taking his wife, also a highly regarded physician, and three young children from India to the U.K. to start a new chapter.