Health News
- Elizabethtown Doctors Who Paid Millions To Settle Claims Of Bill-padding Are Sued By Chemotherapy Patients
"Eight former patients or their estates have sued the Elizabethtown cancer doctors who paid the government $3.7 million last June to settle claims they extended chemotherapy treatments to pad their bills," Andrew Wolfson reports for The Courier-Journal....
- Elizabethtown Cancer Clinic Pays $3.7 Million To Resolve Claims It Diluted Drugs, Prolonged Chemotherapy To Make More Money
Elizabethtown Hematology Oncology PLC and its owners has paid $3,739,325 to settle claims "that they submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare, Medicaid and the military's medical provider for extending the duration of chemotherapy infusion...
- Ashland Hospital Agrees To Pay $40.9 Million To Settle Charges It Defrauded Medicare And Medicaid For Six Years
"King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland has agreed to pay $40.9 million to settle allegations that it fraudulently billed federally-funded health care programs for hundreds of unnecessary heart procedures" from 2006 through 2011, Bill Estep reports...
- St. Joseph Hospital In London Will Pay U.s. $16.5 Million To Settle Malpractice Suits Involving Unnecessary Heart Procedures
St. Joseph Hospital in London will pay $16.5 million to the federal government to settle charges that it got money from Medicare and the federal-state Medicaid program for unnecessary heart procedures, according to a document released Tuesday. The schemes...
- Medically Unnecessary Procedures Are Part Of Culture Of Disability In Eastern Kentucky, Professor Writes
St. Joseph London Hospital is taking heat over accusations of performing medically unnecessary cardiac catheterizations and other invasive cardiac procedures, and a look at the health data by a Kentucky physician suggests that the phenomenon is broader...
Health News
St. Joseph London, doctors and others win the first of a dozen trials over allegations of unnecessary procedures at hospital
A jury has decided for the St. Joseph London hospital, several of its doctors and other defendants in a lawsuit that accused them of conspiring "to perform unnecessary, risky and often painful heart procedures to unjustly enrich themselves," Andrew Wolfson writes for The Courier-Journal.
After a three-week trial of the suit filed by Ed Marshall, the Laurel Circuit Court jury took only 40 minutes Nov. 21 to decide there had been no wrongdoing, Nita Johnson reports for The Sentinel-Echo. However, The C-J reports that the case was only the first of 12 "that will be tried to show the value of the cases to both sides, according to Louisville lawyer Hans Poppe, one of the plaintiff's lawyers. . . . He said Marshall had suffered five heart attacks before he was allegedly given an unnecessary stent and that the jury may have been reluctant to fault the defendants given his complex prior medical history."
"Marshall?s lawsuit spurred five other cardiology patients to step up with claims that the doctors were doing unnecessary procedures on patients with heart problems," Johnson reports. "The list of lawsuits continued to expand, with numerous patients and the family members of deceased patients joining in with the claims that the cardiologists were performing procedures that were not medically necessary. Before all was said and done, over 200 people had filed lawsuits against the London hospital, its owning agency ? Catholic Health Initiatives; the cardiovascular company that referred patients to the local hospital, the medical billing organization, and individual cardiologists involved in certain procedures. One of those cardiologists ? Sandesh Patil ? is serving federal prison time for falsely billing Medicare for procedures" that the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure said didn't meet minimum guidelines.
In January, the hospital agreed to pay the federal government $16.5 million to resolve "civil allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicare and Kentucky's Medicaid programs for unnecessary heart procedures," Wolfson notes. The deal also put the hospital under a corporate integrity agreement, and its president and chief nursing officer were replaced in September by officials who have experience in operating under such agreements, R. Scott Belzer reported for The Sentinel-Echo.
After a three-week trial of the suit filed by Ed Marshall, the Laurel Circuit Court jury took only 40 minutes Nov. 21 to decide there had been no wrongdoing, Nita Johnson reports for The Sentinel-Echo. However, The C-J reports that the case was only the first of 12 "that will be tried to show the value of the cases to both sides, according to Louisville lawyer Hans Poppe, one of the plaintiff's lawyers. . . . He said Marshall had suffered five heart attacks before he was allegedly given an unnecessary stent and that the jury may have been reluctant to fault the defendants given his complex prior medical history."
"Marshall?s lawsuit spurred five other cardiology patients to step up with claims that the doctors were doing unnecessary procedures on patients with heart problems," Johnson reports. "The list of lawsuits continued to expand, with numerous patients and the family members of deceased patients joining in with the claims that the cardiologists were performing procedures that were not medically necessary. Before all was said and done, over 200 people had filed lawsuits against the London hospital, its owning agency ? Catholic Health Initiatives; the cardiovascular company that referred patients to the local hospital, the medical billing organization, and individual cardiologists involved in certain procedures. One of those cardiologists ? Sandesh Patil ? is serving federal prison time for falsely billing Medicare for procedures" that the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure said didn't meet minimum guidelines.
In January, the hospital agreed to pay the federal government $16.5 million to resolve "civil allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims to the Medicare and Kentucky's Medicaid programs for unnecessary heart procedures," Wolfson notes. The deal also put the hospital under a corporate integrity agreement, and its president and chief nursing officer were replaced in September by officials who have experience in operating under such agreements, R. Scott Belzer reported for The Sentinel-Echo.
- Elizabethtown Doctors Who Paid Millions To Settle Claims Of Bill-padding Are Sued By Chemotherapy Patients
"Eight former patients or their estates have sued the Elizabethtown cancer doctors who paid the government $3.7 million last June to settle claims they extended chemotherapy treatments to pad their bills," Andrew Wolfson reports for The Courier-Journal....
- Elizabethtown Cancer Clinic Pays $3.7 Million To Resolve Claims It Diluted Drugs, Prolonged Chemotherapy To Make More Money
Elizabethtown Hematology Oncology PLC and its owners has paid $3,739,325 to settle claims "that they submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare, Medicaid and the military's medical provider for extending the duration of chemotherapy infusion...
- Ashland Hospital Agrees To Pay $40.9 Million To Settle Charges It Defrauded Medicare And Medicaid For Six Years
"King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland has agreed to pay $40.9 million to settle allegations that it fraudulently billed federally-funded health care programs for hundreds of unnecessary heart procedures" from 2006 through 2011, Bill Estep reports...
- St. Joseph Hospital In London Will Pay U.s. $16.5 Million To Settle Malpractice Suits Involving Unnecessary Heart Procedures
St. Joseph Hospital in London will pay $16.5 million to the federal government to settle charges that it got money from Medicare and the federal-state Medicaid program for unnecessary heart procedures, according to a document released Tuesday. The schemes...
- Medically Unnecessary Procedures Are Part Of Culture Of Disability In Eastern Kentucky, Professor Writes
St. Joseph London Hospital is taking heat over accusations of performing medically unnecessary cardiac catheterizations and other invasive cardiac procedures, and a look at the health data by a Kentucky physician suggests that the phenomenon is broader...