It was Bishop Berkeley who asked rhetorically, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”
The judge in Pediatric Nephrology Assocs. v. Variety Children’s Hospital didn’t mention either the...more
William Nash filed a whistleblower case against his former employer but wanted to remain anonymous so that his new employer wouldn’t know that he is—you guessed it–a whistleblower.
William’s qui tam action alleged Medicaid...more
Can any state rival Kentucky for keeping physicians in the headlines in recent days? Three big stories in a five-day span:
On October 30 the Franklin Circuit Court struck down as unconstitutional a new Kentucky statute...more
Who says a background in English literature has no practical value? Certainly not the attorneys defending Dimensions Health in a class action filed on behalf of patients treated by an OB/GYN on the Dimensions medical staff....more
Lancet Indemnity’s $1 M med mal policy had a standard clause requiring the insured, Dr. Ishtiaq Malik, to cooperate and assist Lancet and appointed counsel in investigating and defending claims. But when the family of...more
The False Claims Act has a scienter requirement: it makes it illegal to knowingly present a false claim to the government.
So if a company innocently presents a false claim, it can’t be guilty of violating the Act, right?...more
From time to time a development in health law confirms the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. That’s why we hand out the You-Can’t-Make-this-Up Award for real life developments that seem to defy the imagination....more
The Imagination-in-Pleading Award for September goes to plaintiff Willie Pearl Smith for her lawsuit against the Hospital Authority of Cobb County, Georgia, and related entities in connection with the death of her daughter,...more
Three affiliated home health companies in Tennessee agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle False Claims Act (FCA) liability. That’s a lot of money, but it’s only about four percent of the $42 million in potential liability...more
If you’re a surgical device distributor and you want to reward a surgeon for using your products on Medicare and Medicaid patients, you may want to choose a reward that’s less conspicuous than a yacht. That’s one lesson in...more
A lot of people think they know something about hospital staffing levels: the proper ratio of nurses to patients. From time to time a legislator, patient advocate, or union spokesman will propose a required ratio—often a...more
At first glance, it looks nonsensical. How could it be bad news for False Claims Act whistleblowers that the defendant pleaded guilty to violating that statute—to committing the very Medicare fraud the whistleblowers alleged?...more
What happens when a nursing home patient signs an arbitration agreement with a 30-day rescission, or cooling-off, period and then dies before the end of that period? Is the agreement enforceable because it wasn’t rescinded? ...more
EMTALA was enacted to prevent hospitals from turning away—or “dumping”—ER patients because they can’t pay. EMTALA requires a hospital to (1) provide a screening exam to determine if an emergency medical condition (EMC) exists...more
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but tort reform still smells bad to traditional opponents despite an attractive title. That’s why most observers believe that the House-passed “Protecting Access to Care Act,”...more
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s cast its June 20 opinion as standing for the proposition that a surgeon can’t delegate his duty of obtaining informed consent to anyone else—his physician assistant in the case at hand. But...more
When Kerrie Evans’s child was born with cystic fibrosis, she sued her nurse practitioner and doctor for failure to adequately inform her about prenatal testing for CF, making concerns about cost the centerpiece of her...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld Nebraska’s statutory medical malpractice limit, rejecting attacks that were based on the Seventh, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution.
After a...more
Indiana’s relaxed telemedicine rules went into effect July 1. Generally, under the new rules a prescriber (defined as a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice nurse, optometrist, or podiatrist) may prescribe...more
A physician immigrated to the United States in 1991 and established a medical practice called Compassionate Doctors. By 2013 the practice and its related health care entities boasted some 44 employees and contractors,...more
Was the Louisville hospital’s restriction of Dr. Ben Reid’s surgery privileges a professional review activity or a professional review action?
When Ben sued on various tort theories, the hospital claimed immunity under the...more
Maria Paz Garza was the King Midas of incontinence supplies: she turned diapers into dollars—over two and a half million of them, according to the government’s indictment.
She did it through a scheme that charged Texas...more
On June 2 the Iowa Supreme Court expressly recognized the right of parents to sue for wrongful birth.
Pam and Jeremy Plowman allege the following: Pam underwent ultrasound in week 22 of her pregnancy. The radiologist’s...more
ER physician Ryan Kime believed his hospital lacked the resources, procedures, and capacity to meet the requirements of EMTALA, and he repeatedly said so. At an ER meeting he reported two cases as possible EMTALA violations...more
Allstate Insurance has won a judgment of nearly $4 million against a NY lawyer and Calif. consultant who guided a NJ chiropractor in structuring a medical practice designed to appear to meet the requirements of the state...more