Who knew? In New Jersey ambulance service is considered a “learned profession,” up there with medicine and law. And that classification provides more than prestige. It means exemption from the state’s Consumer Fraud 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
A divided Fifth Circuit has affirmed a lower court ruling that an advertising restriction promulgated by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners violates the First Amendment rights of the plaintiff dentists.
The Texas...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
We have a tie! Danielle Burroughs and Tim Arthur are co-winners of the Low-Return Fraud Award for the month of May.
On May 30 a federal court ordered Danielle to pay a whopping $2.8 million in restitution for her role in a...more
A recent First Circuit opinion demonstrates that sometimes how you say something is more important that what you say. In fact, that principle led the court to reverse the NLRB’s order that a Massachusetts hospital must...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
If you think that ignorance of the law is no excuse, take a look at the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in US ex rel. Phalp v. Lincare Holdings. It leaves no doubt that in a False Claims Act case, ignorance can be a solid defense....more
When a qui tam case is dismissed, it’s not unusual for the defendant to seek an order requiring the whistleblower to reimburse its attorneys’ fees. What is unusual is for the defendant to seek an order requiring the...more
Dr. Steven Svabek may have set a record for the number of reasons why his tail policy didn’t cover the medical malpractice claims against him.
According to a memorandum decision issued last week by the Indiana Court of...more
It’s so brief—just eleven words in a 23-page, single-spaced opinion—that you could easily overlook it, but the Third Circuit’s recent opinion cites the government’s nonintervention in a qui tam case as evidence supporting...more
You can’t make this stuff up. When CMS conducted a study to identify hospitals that game the quality data reporting system, it used an approach that made the data reporting look better than it actually was. That bottom line...more
In yet another demonstration of the benefits of lifetime tenure, a federal judge in Florida has told the Department of Justice to take a hike. It happened when the DOJ asked for permission to submit a “statement of interest”...more
State limitations on medical malpractice recoveries seem to be under almost daily attack. The latest serious threat comes from Louisiana, where a federal district court has authorized an interlocutory appeal of his ruling...more
Strange as it sounds, Missouri state law allowed federal workers to recover medical bills twice: once under their federal health insurance plan and again from the person (or person’s insurer) responsible for their injuries. ...more
Intent is a necessary element of a False Claims Act (FCA) violation. If a defendant reasonably relied on advice of counsel in performing the actions at issue, the intent element is absent. That’s the upside of the...more
The recent decision in Dignity v. Burwell is interesting for three reasons. For one thing, it provides a reminder of the unfortunate fact that the acts (or inaction) of one party can adversely affect the fate of others—as...more
In the august halls of a federal courthouse, things aren’t always what they seem. Say, for example, court rules require that briefs must “be double-spaced and in 12-point font with 1-inch margins.” Knowing that a “point” is...more