Legal & Regulatory Issues

A Des Moines, Iowa, plastic surgeon has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle allegations that he fraudulently billed Medicare and Medicaid.

A hospital that Tower Health acquired from Community Health Systems was in compliance with state and federal licensing at the time of the transaction, according to a Sept. 6 opinion from a Pennsylvania federal court. 

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood-testing startup Theranos who was convicted of defrauding investors, has asked for a new trial, saying a witness has had second thoughts about his testimony, Yahoo Finance reported Sept. 6.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against Elderwood at Burlington (Vt.) Sept. 6 for alleged racial harassment of its employees.

Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine won a $12 million jury verdict regarding COVID-19-related business income-interruption cases against several Lloyd's of London syndicates in a Texas state court, according to a Sept. 6 report from Insurance Business America. 

Nurses in North Carolina can now be sued for patient harm that results from them following physicians' orders, the state Supreme Court ruled last month. 

A cardiologist at the University of Pittsburgh lost a civil rights lawsuit Aug. 31 after a judge ruled he did not show the university could be held responsible for adverse employment actions.

A former employee of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health pleaded guilty Sept. 1 to fraud offenses in connection with two separate criminal schemes, according to the Justice Department.

A Michigan nurse was charged with second-degree vulnerable adult abuse after failing to report two incorrect medication doses, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nassel stated Sep. 1.

The Labor Department has filed a lawsuit accusing the former CEO of a West Virginia hospital of fiduciary breaches while operating the company's healthcare plan.