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.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the judgment, which was issued against two facilities in Pennsylvania. The nursing homes fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid for working hours despite staff not being on the floor.
In court documents, an unnamed Minnesota woman said that in 2022, she was admitted to an Allina Health hospital and scheduled for the removal of her infected spleen, only for an error to result in her left kidney being removed instead.
Community Health System and Physician Network Advantage, an affiliated technology consultancy firm, were accused of bribing physicians for patient referrals in the form of paid vacations, expensive gifts and business meetings held at strip clubs.
The company told Cardiovascular Business it respectfully disagrees with the jury's decision and is evaluating all possible legal options going forward. The Association of Medical Device Reprocessors, meanwhile, celebrated the news.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports that UnitedHealth Group is being investigated for criminal fraud, likely stemming from its Medicare Advantage billing practices.
A Florida family is suing Mayo Clinic for allegedly performing a heart transplant without communicating certain risks associated with the donated organ. Mayo Clinic has pushed back against those claims, saying it acted appropriately every step of the way.
While the policy of President Donald Trump is to axe research on transgender issues and DEI, scientists who spoke to the Boston Globe said their work does not run up against those restrictions.
Tasha Saunders, 44, pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicaid in a scheme that involved creating fake patient records and forging the signatures of unwitting providers at a psychiatric rehabilitation center.
Drug distributors AmerisourceBergen (Cencora), Cardinal Health, McKesson, Johnson & Johnson, Teva and Allergan do not admit to wrongdoing. However, they have agreed to a settlement which will compensate providers for opioid abuse treatments.
After a bout of COVID-19, an 81-year-old woman developed bed sores that became infested with maggots. A lawsuit claims the facility failed to take proper action to treat the injury.
That number could rise to $6.75 million, depending on the number of patients who sign onto the class-action settlement levied against Virginia Mason Medical Center. The hospital does not admit to wrongdoing.