Legal & Regulatory Issues

Asheville, N.C.-based HCA Mission Hospital has had its immediate jeopardy designation lifted, Blue Ridge Public Radio reported June 12.

Service Employees International Union 121RN was ordered May 31 by a Los Angeles-based federal arbitrator to pay Riverside (Calif.) Community Hospital, part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, $6.26 million in damages for holding an "unlawful strike" in June 2020. 

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the now-defunct blood testing startup Theranos, is appealing her fraud conviction, according to CNN.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee issued a directive June 11 that hospitals are legally required to provide abortions in emergency cases. 

A former physician who owned three clinics in Alabama and her wife pleaded guilty to their roles in a $2.3 million scheme. 

Inspire Health Medical Group has agreed to pay a $1.2 million settlement to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, Calif., after neurosurgeons allegedly planned a walkout in 2021 and gave the system less than 32 hours' notice. 

A North Carolina federal judge denied the Federal Trade Commission's request to bar Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health from acquiring two North Carolina hospitals from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems until its appeal is resolved.

Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have introduced the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act of 2024 in an attempt to remove "corporate greed and private equity abuse" in healthcare.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposed rule that it said would eliminate as much as $49 billion of medical debts that "unjustly lowers credit scores for 15 million Americans."

Surgeon Eithan Haim, MD, is being charged with four counts of criminal HIPAA violations after he leaked internal documents from Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital regarding gender-affirming services, Houston Public Media reported June 10.