From Wellstar Health getting hit with three federal complaints over the closure of two Atlanta-area hospitals, to a former CEO suing a Missouri hospital for slander, here are 10 hospital lawsuits and settlements reported by Becker's since Feb. 27:   

The U.S. filed a lawsuit against Mounds View, Minn.-based Midwest Medical Holdings on March 16, accusing the company that supplies pharmaceutical and medical products of owing millions of dollars in employment taxes. 

A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a staffing executive at three home health agencies in Las Vegas with participating in a conspiracy to fix nurses' wages, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada said March 16.

When a freezer tank at the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco malfunctioned in 2018, around 4,000 embryos and eggs inside were destroyed. Patients affected by the failure have now settled out of court with Chart, the manufacturer of the freezer tank for an undisclosed amount, The Washington Post reported March 15. 

A federal jury convicted physician Frederick Gooding, MD, of fraudulently billing Medicare more than $5 million for injections he did not perform or provide as billed. 

A Chicago-area physician is accused of 13 counts of healthcare fraud, including performing medically unnecessary procedures such as removing part of patients' uteruses.

Minnesota lawmakers introduced new legislation that, if passed, will require hospitals to screen all uninsured patients for charity care eligibility and assist them during the application process, the Post Bulletin reported March 16.

The Fulton County (Ga.) Commission voted on March 15 to file a complaint with the Justice Department against Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System, marking the third request for federal complaints against the health system over its closure of two Atlanta-area hospitals in a week, according to a report from WABE. 

Ralph Johnson, a former manager at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was sentenced to six months in federal prison for accepting $30,000 in kickbacks and bribes to steer contracts toward a Florida couple, Stars and Stripes reported March 15.

Nationwide, Medicaid fraud units recovered $1.1 billion in civil and criminal suits in 2022, according to a report from the HHS' Office of Inspector General. 

A Missouri physician whose Medicare and Medicaid billing privileges were terminated pleaded guilty to fraudulently using his father's name to bill the government payers. 

A former Panama City, Fla.-based NeuroMedical Institute physician, George Barrio, MD, has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle allegations that he engaged in unlawful prescribing of opioids to patients. 

States are rooting out alleged "fake" nurses and penalizing them for buying fraudulent nursing school transcripts and diplomas from three now-shuttered Florida schools. 

Hospitals and the physicians who practice in their emergency rooms do not see eye to eye on the Federal Trade Commission's proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts. 

Two companies operating healthcare sharing ministries will pay $2.1 million to California to settle allegations they violated insurance regulations by deceptively advertising their plans as equivalent to standard health insurance. 

A medical testing company owner was sentenced to 80 months in prison and ordered to more than $9.1 million in restitution for his role in a healthcare fraud scheme. 

New legislation pushed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont would end facility fees charged at freestanding offices and clinics away from hospitals and create stricter reporting requirements for facility fees, sfgate.com reported March 13.

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Rite Aid, claiming the retail pharmacy chain filled hundreds of thousands of "unlawful" prescriptions of controlled substances, including opioids, from May 2014 to June 2019. 

South Florida is a hot spot for schemes designed to defraud Medicare and Medicaid, according to an investigator for HHS' Office of the Inspector General. 

Former nurse Alec Ramirez, 32, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and had his license revoked after he was convicted of stealing controlled substances from Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kan.