Legal News

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.

Kaiser Permanente agrees to $46M settlement over data incident affecting 13.4M people
The managed care company does not admit to doing anything wrong. The data breach constituted its use of third-party tracking technology on its website, which shared data with Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Meta and others.
Judge dismisses radiologist’s fraud claims stemming from $20M sale to private equity
Gregory R. Ball, MD, of Orchard Park, New York, and his attorneys first filed the complaint against Southtowns Radiology Associates in February, seeking some $2 million in damages.
Drug discounts for safety-net hospitals up in the air and into the courts
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.
Beloved radiologist and his wife killed in apparent murder-suicide
Eric Cordes, MD, 63, of Simi Valley, California, was a highly respected diagnostic specialist with Adventist Health Simi Valley and Focus Medical Imaging.
CVS agrees to pay $38M to resolve insulin over-distribution allegations, DOJ says
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.

shocked surprised social media post defamation

UnitedHealth hires law firm, demands doctor recant statements on social media

According to a report from Bloomberg Law, UnitedHealth has hired a prestigious defamation law firm to police what it deems as misinformation posted online.

Healthcare AI newswatch: UnitedHealth lawsuit, humanized medical AI, mobile AI care clinics, more

A federal judge has vacated five of seven complaints against UnitedHealth Group—yet is allowing the AI-implicated suit to advance.

Vandalism broken window property destruction

Hospital delays opening after vandals sledgehammer holes into walls

The grand unveiling of a new Trinity Health System hospital in Ohio has been delayed after vandals smashed up the place. The incident is currently under investigation.

Judge orders HHS agencies to restore health information

A Tuesday ruling gave the FDA, CDC and HHS until midnight to undo the mass deletion of webpages stemming from Trump executive orders.

Cancer patient in pain for months discovers surgical sponge in neck, lawsuit claims

Frank Kryzak has filed a lawsuit against Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital after an exploratory surgery allegedly left him in a mysterious state of agony for four months.

Family of heart patient who died after missing medications in jail settles lawsuit

A 54-year-old heart transplant recipient was unable to take doctor-prescribed medications during his brief stay at a local jail. He died a few days after being released.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) HQ

HHS offers update on comms pause as rapid policy shifts continue

A spokesperson told HealthExec that "several types of external communications" are no longer subject to any pause, including urgent public health alerts.

Medical malpractice gavel diagnostic error mistake stethoscope

Should emergency medicine malpractice protections extend to consultant radiologists?

A California appeals court recently ruled in favor of on-call radiologist Peymam Kangavari, MD, after he was accused of overlooking a bowel obstruction on X-ray and ultrasound images.

Legal News

Kaiser Permanente agrees to $46M settlement over data incident affecting 13.4M people

Judge dismisses radiologist’s fraud claims stemming from $20M sale to private equity

Drug discounts for safety-net hospitals up in the air and into the courts

Beloved radiologist and his wife killed in apparent murder-suicide

CVS agrees to pay $38M to resolve insulin over-distribution allegations, DOJ says