Legal & Regulatory Issues

The operational and financial complexity of healthcare delivery can create tension between payers and providers. This tension can be heightened due to regulations and the implementation of sub-performing technologies.

HHS proposed repealing its "sunset" rule that would require the department to eliminate existing regulations after 10 years unless the department reviewed them and could justify keeping the regulation in place, according to an Oct. 28 Federal Register notice.

From a for-profit hospital operator sued over the bankruptcy of a company it spun off to a former Massachusetts health system CFO alleging he was fired for voicing billing concerns, here are the latest hospital lawsuits making headlines. 

Health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare is suing TeamHealth over the hospital staffing company's emergency room bills. 

A former nurse at Tyler, Texas-based Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital and Christus Mother Frances Hospital-Tyler was sentenced to death Oct. 27 for the murder of four patients, Tyler Morning Telegraph reported. 

A high-profile healthcare CEO is being sued over allegations that she violated her employment contract by stealing away employees from Encompass Health, The Dallas Morning News reported.

A U.S. district judge issued a default judgment siding with Jackson-based University of Mississippi Medical Center over litigation against three former employees who stole patient records and lied about their possession, Mississippi Today reported Oct. 26.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and various affiliates defrauded Medicare of about $1 billion by adding diagnoses to patients' medical records to increase reimbursement, the Justice Department alleged in a complaint filed Oct. 25. 

A former Novant Health executive who claimed in a lawsuit he was fired to help the organization reach diversity goals was awarded $10 million by a federal jury Oct. 22.

Attorneys representing Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare are asking a federal court to prevent the Justice Department from intervening in a false claims lawsuit filed by whistleblowers against the Memphis, Tenn.-based health system, according to the Commercial Appeal.