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.

Medicaid fraud units recovered $415.7 million from criminal convictions and $641.5 million in civil settlements in 2022, according to a report from HHS' Office of the Inspector General.

A former Pennsylvania pain management physician was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay more than $400,000 after pleading guilty to fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid.

The Washington Senate approved a bill to raise Astria Toppenish (Wash.) Hospital's Medicaid inpatient service reimbursement rates to 120 percent of the Medicaid fee schedule and outpatient reimbursement rates to 200 percent. 

Federal investigators indicted the former CEO of a medical device company on March 9 in connection to a scheme that involved creating and selling a "non-functioning dummy" device that was implanted in patients with chronic pain, according to the Justice Department. 

Randall Tobler, MD, the former CEO of Memphis, Mo.-based Scotland County Hospital, sued the hospital over slander and defamation allegations, according to a March 9 report from KTVO News.

A pair of Pennsylvania state representatives have drafted legislation designed to prevent abrupt hospital closures by doubling the time in which a health system must notify state and local agencies of a planned closure.