Children's Hospital Colorado has filed a legal challenge to the Defense Health Agency's planned reimbursement changes to Tricare that the Aurora-based system said would significantly lower the amount it is paid for outpatient services. 

A California law that allowed regulators to discipline physicians for spreading misinformation related to COVID-19 has been repealed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Oct. 2. 

From a New York cardiologist agreeing to relinquish his practice as part of a settlement agreement, to a nurse practitioner convicted in a $200 million scheme, here are 10 healthcare billing fraud cases Becker's reported since Sept. 19: 

Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $425 million to settle product liability suits over two heartburn drugs, Prilosec and Nexium, according to an Oct. 3 news release.

A Rhode Island man who is accused of attacking a nurse was already facing an assault charge from a different incident at another medical center, CBS affiliate WPRI reported Oct. 2.

The Virginia State Health Commissioner shut down HCA Healthcare's proposal to build a $234 million hospital in Hanover County, Va., Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Oct. 3.

Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare has reserved $47 million to settle a kickback lawsuit filed by a former member of its executive team, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sept. 29. 

A Delaware specialty pharmacy and its CEO agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of a kickback scheme, according to the Justice Department.

Currently, laboratory-developed tests — the basis for 70 percent of medical decisions made in the U.S. — don't require FDA clearance. That could change in the next several years if a proposed rule to phase in more regulation of lab tests is finalized. 

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center in Elgin, N.D., accusing the critical access hospital of illegally discharging an African American employee after she reported racial harassment.

A 35-year-old Texas woman pleaded not guilty to the allegations that she impersonated a nurse for three years, the Laredo Morning Times reported Sept. 30.

Two employees at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., were stabbed by a patient Oct. 1, according to police.

A new lawsuit against New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center alleges the system covered up years of abuse by urologist Darius Paduch, MD, Fox News reported Sept. 29.

A healthcare worker at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro, Ark., was choked by an individual in the hospital Sept. 23, a spokesperson from the medical center confirmed to Becker's.

Missouri denied the certificate of need application for Centerpoint Medical Center of Independence to build a $37 million three-bed emergency hospital, The Landmark reported Sept. 29.

The former medical director of a Texas hospice company was sentenced to 50 months in prison for his role in a scheme that submitted more than $150 million in false claims to Medicare. 

Four individuals in South Florida have been sentenced to prison for their role in a coordinated scheme to sell more than 7,600 fraudulent diplomas and transcripts to aspiring nurses, which enabled them to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination without completing the necessary coursework. 

An Ohio woman, who falsely represented herself as a physician, and her physician husband were sentenced for a healthcare scheme which led some patients to believe they had cognitive diseases.

A man in possession of a loaded handgun was arrested Sept. 27 at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, NBC affiliate WSMV reported. 

A Massachusetts woman pleaded guilty to calling in a hoax bomb threat against Boston Children's Hospital.