Medical blog » case

Ex-Bear Stearns banker pleads guilty in fraud case

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:04:47 +0000

CHICAGO, Feb 25 (Reuters) – A former municipal banker at
Bear, Stearns & Co, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to fraud
involving hospital financing that is part of a wide-ranging
probe of government corruption in Illinois.
P. Nicholas Hurtgen, who had been set to go on trial in
U.S. District Court next month, pleaded guilty to one count of
aiding and abetting a scheme to defraud Illinois’ health
facilities planning board, which was weighing a proposal to
expand a Chicago-area hospital.
The case is part of a corruption investigation by U.S.
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago dubbed “Operation Board
Games.” It culminated in the arrest in December of
then-Governor Rod Blagojevich.
According to a plea agreement released by the U.S.
Attorney’s office, Hurtgen admitted being part of a scheme to
pressure officials of Edward Hospital in Naperville to use a
construction firm run by Jacob Kiferbaum for the expansion.
Hospital officials were told they had to use the
construction firm or the state’s health board might decline to
approve the project, according to the plea agreement.
Kiferbaum and health board member Stuart Levine have
pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.
Hurtgen also wanted the hospital to use Bear Stearns for
the project’s financing, the plea agreement said. Bear Stearns
has since been absorbed by JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N:
,
,
).
A key figure in the corruption scheme was Antoin “Tony”
Rezko, a one-time fund-raiser for Blagojevich and President
Barack Obama. Rezko was convicted by a jury in June.
Blagojevich, a Democrat, was arrested in December on
suspicion of trying to elicit campaign contributions and other
favors for official acts, including trying to sell his power to
appoint someone to fill Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat.

State loses case over special diet for PKU

admin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:16:56 +0000

A Nashville judge has ruled the state was wrong to refuse to pay for special foods for two young TennCare patients with a rare genetic disorder.
State officials fought the decision, fearing it could lead to a flood of requests from people who want TennCare to cover food for medical diets.
Chancellor Carol McCoy ruled Wednesday in favor of two Coffee County children.
The children have phenylketonuria, an incurable disease that can cause permanent mental retardation if patients don’t eat specially modified food.
McCoy found that PKU is different from other medical conditions because patients can’t consume ordinary food or modify their diets with everyday products. She said the state failed to take into account the serious harm to the children if they don’t eat the special diet.

Important dates in surgeon's manslaughter case

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:16:19 +0000

A timeline of the case involving Dr. Jayant Patel, who is facing trial on manslaughter charges in the deaths of three patients in Australia from 2003 to early2005:
April 10, 1950: Jayant Mukundray Patel born in Jamnagar, Gujarat,India.
1976: Patel graduates from the state-run M.P. Shah Medical College at Saurashtra University in Jamnagar,India.
1978: Patel enters surgical residency program in the U.S. at University of Rochester in New Yorkstate.
1984: Patel is cited in Buffalo, New York, for failing to examine patients before surgery; he is fined and placed on probation for threeyears.
1989: Patel moves to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Portland,Oregon.
1998: After 79 complaints, Kaiser restricts Patel's practice, banning him from liver and pancreatic surgeries and requiring second opinions on othersurgeries.
September 2000: After reviewing four cases in which three patients died, the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners applies Patel's restrictionsstatewide.
April 2001: New York state revokes his medicallicense.
2003: Patel employed as a surgeon at Bundaberg Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia, and is promoted to director ofsurgery.
March 22, 2005: Patel's clinical practices at Bundaberg hospital questioned by lawmakers in Queensland stateparliament.
April 1, 2005: Queensland health department pays for Patel's one-way business class ticket toOregon.
Nov. 22, 2006: Warrants issued for Patel's arrest on charges of manslaughter, causing grievous bodily harm andfraud.
March 11, 2008: FBI agents arrest Patel at his Portlandhome.
June 26, 2008: Patel volunteers to be extradited to Australia fortrial.
July 21, 2008: Patel escorted to Australia by police and makes court appearance where he is granted bail pendingtrial.
February 9, 2009: Preliminary hearing for Patel to begin in Brisbane MagistratesCourt.
Sources: 2005 Queensland Public Hospitals Commission of Inquiry, New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct, Patel's application for clinical privileges atBundaberg.

Patient privacy at stake in Ohio abortion case

admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:53:02 +0000

The privacy of hundreds of minor patients’ medical records lies in the hands of the Ohio Supreme Court as it deliberates a case over alleged violations of the state’s abortion consent law.
The parents of a 14-year-old girl who had an abortion without their consent allege Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region repeatedly ran afoul of the state statute that requires physicians to obtain written parental permission before performing an abortion on a minor. To prove their case, the parents claim they need access to 10 years’ worth of medical records on minors who sought abortions.
The family also charges that the clinic failed to report suspected child abuse. The teenage girl became pregnant by her 21-year-old soccer coach, who posed as her father to help her obtain an abortion, according to court records.
Planned Parenthood denies any wrongdoing and maintained in court documents that the records — which do not involve parties to the lawsuit — are irrelevant and protected under the state’s physician-patient privilege.
Doctors agree and fear that if the information is released, not only will patients’ confidentiality be compromised, so will their access to care.
“We have to make sure the physician-patient privilege means something,” said Nancy Gillette, general counsel to the Ohio State Medical Assn. The organization filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, along with the Litigation Center of the American Medical Association and State Medical Societies and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
State law generally protects nonparty medical records from disclosure in lawsuits, Gillette said. If that privacy is not protected, patients –especially minors — will be less likely to seek treatment.
A trial court initially granted the family’s request for the documents, with specific patient-identifying information removed. An appeals court rejected the lower court decision in 2007.
Plaintiffs appealed to the state Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard Oct. 7. A decision is expected by spring.

Pa. woman in baby snatching case sent to hospital

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:11:26 +0000

A Pittsburgh-area woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting her infant from her womb is going to spend the next 60 days in a state mental facility.
A judge presiding over a competency hearing Monday for Andrea Curry-Demus says he would like status updates periodically on the woman’s condition. Curry-Demus is accused of meeting Kia Johnson at the Allegheny County Jail while each were visiting other inmates and then somehow luring the 18-year-old in July to her apartment to steal the baby from her womb.
Curry-Demus then went to a hospital claiming she’d given birth. Suspicious hospital workers alerted authorities and Johnson’s body was found in Curry-Demus’ bedroom.
A judge previously found Curry-Demus competent, but her previous attorney says she has a history of mental problems.

Family moving ahead in case against car maker

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:29:14 +0000

SUSSEX – It will be up to a judge to decide if Kia owes the Gray family of Sussex more than a promise to repair its rotten car if the family agrees to absolve the car company of responsibility for its poor health.
Greedy is not a word Crystal McLaughlin-Gray would use to describe herself, but she cannot accept an offer while her young family is still running to doctors.
Shortly after the Grays bought the car new from Saint John Kia in 2006, they noticed a rancid smell that could not be professionally cleaned. Kia blamed the smell on Scotch guarding, McLaughlin-Gray explained.
For nearly two years the health of the family, consisting of Crystal, her husband Pat and their two elementary-school aged children, suffered. It was unexplainable, McLaughlin-Gray says, since all members of the family were having the same problem breathing and being diagnosed and medicated for lung infections and pneumonia an unusual amount.
In September, after the family noticed the rotting taking place in the trunk and the car's back seat, an unaffiliated Sussex car dealership examined the car and found a manufacturer's defect led to a leak in the trunk. Through the seasons water continually made its way under the back seats and caused rotting.
An independent lab in Fredericton took samples of the mould and deemed the car dangerous to be in, and concluded the moulds could cause all the problems the Grays were suffering with.
Kia's last offer in mid-November was to cover the car's $3,200 in repairs if the Grays signed a waiver absolving the company of any further liability for their health problems.
And while the Grays' lawyer Donald Keenan gave the company one month to make a “reasonable gesture,” there has been no more word from Kia, McLaughlin-Gray said on Friday, Kia's deadline day.
Legal action has already been filed and McLaughlin-Gray believes the family has no option now but to pursue it.
“The gesture they made for us to sign a health waiver is not acceptable. If I didn't think these were legitimate health issues, I would sign a waiver,” McLaughlin-Gray said, “but we are still on puffers and seeing specialists.”
The Grays are driving a second-hand car while the Spectra, which they still make monthly payments on, sits abandoned behind their Sussex home. It is still rotten inside so badly that part of the seatbelt that held five-year-old Marcus's booster seat snapped.
Meanwhile, everyone in the family has seen some improvement in their breathing since they stopped driving the car in September. Crystal's lung test now shows lung function of a 57-year-old smoker, instead of the 60-year-old results she got several weeks ago. She is 20 years young than that, is an active school guidance counsellor and doesn't smoke.
Her 35-year-old husband Pat's test results still show that of a 70-year-old, even though he will say that the heaviness in his chest has lightened a bit and makes breathing easier. He is athletic and a non-smoker.
The kids are spending less time in the doctor's office and on antibiotics, the mom explained. Her youngest, Marcus, was “choking to death” in the car, and now rarely makes the same sound of severely restricted breathing that, a couple months ago, came regularly.
“These were all health issues we had never faced in our lives,” McLaughlin-Gray said. “My hope is that we will keep getting better and better, but in the event that this mould has caused damage long-term in any of us, then I expect Kia to help us, I really do.
“This was a factory problem, and Kia knows that. I would have much rather had them on our side through this,” she added. “There is no enjoyment going up against a large company like this.
“Why couldn't they have even agreed to make the payments for us for now, or said here's a car – same year, make and model – and we will see where we stand in six months time.”
Quite simply, McLaughlin-Gray cannot be hasty in signing a waiver on her family's health when they are still not in the clear medically.
“We were never asking for oodles of money from them, we just wanted to be treated fairly. Now energy is being put into a lawsuit that should be spent on us getting better.”
In past newspaper stories McLaughlin-Gray repeatedly said a similar replacement car would be fair. Kia wouldn't go for it largely because even though the Grays have receipts showing all their service work done on the vehicle, they didn't travel 45 minutes away to get it done at Saint John Kia.

Ky. lawyers back on trial in diet drug case

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:00:31 +0000

Ky. lawyers back on trial in diet drug case
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Opening arguments are under way in Kentucky in the retrial of two former lawyers accused of bilking clients of millions of dollars from a diet drug settlement.
Arguments began Wednesday in federal court in the fraud case against William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. The two men own a minority stake in two-time Horse of the Year Curlin.
Jurors in the previous trial were deadlocked over a verdict for Gallion and Cunningham. A third defendant, Melbourne Mills, was acquitted.
Gallion and Cunningham have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eight counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud.
A judge in a civil case against the lawyers already awarded former clients at least $42 million.

OC woman pleads guilty in medical fraud case

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:56:41 +0000

COSTA MESA, Calif.—A woman who helped recruit patients to undergo unnecessary surgeries as part of a $154 million medical insurance fraud has pleaded guilty to 22 charges.
Sue Nanda, 40, of Costa Mesa, entered her plea Friday in Orange County Superior Court. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 where she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Nanda worked for the now-shuttered Unity Outpatient Surgery Center in Buena Park, targeting employees from businesses in 39 states who were covered by PPO insurance plans. She recruited more than 170 people from 16 states to undergo unnecessary surgical procedures in exchange for money or cheap cosmetic surgeries.
Nineteen people, including three doctors, have been charged in the alleged scheme. Six have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.

Officials seek CEO in tainted drugs case

admin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:38:10 +0000

ANGIER, N.C. â Federal authorities are looking for the alleged mastermind behind the fatal bacteria-tainted syringes that were shipped from a Harnett County plant.
Two men have already pleaded guilty to shipping the syringes from the AM2PAT plant in Angier that killed at least five people and sickened at least 100. The plantâs manager and quality control director were sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, charged with fraud and allowing tainted drugs into the market place.
Authorities say the company CEO was indicted on 10 charges last week, and that he might have fled to his native India.
The Harnett plant sold almost $7 million worth of heparin and saline syringes in 2006 and 2007.

Family in octuplets case had financial woes

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:47:04 +0000

Last March, Suleman filed bankruptcy, claiming nearly $1 million in liabilities — mostly because of a bad house investment, her attorney said. Countrywide Home Loans approved a $492,000 mortgage for Suleman in 2006 for a second home she bought in Whittier for $615,000. In 2008, the bank began foreclosure procedures. The house was sold in August for $369,375.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Suleman said her daughter did not expect to have octuplets, but that all the implanted embryos “happened to take.”
She acknowledge that supporting a family with 14 children would be difficult, but that her daughter felt like she had little choice.
“What do you suggest she should have done?” Suleman said. “She refused to have them killed.”
To help support the family, the woman’s father works in Iraq as a contractor, where he earns at least $100,000 annually.
Fertility experts, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, have raised concerns about the number of embryos implanted and whether it was within medical guidelines.
“I cannot see circumstances where any reasonable physician would transfer eight embryos into a woman under the age of 35 under any circumstance,” said Arthur Wisot, a fertility doctor in Redondo Beach. “I cannot imagine that any of the mainstream practices in the Los Angeles area were involved in this. I would guess — and it’s a pure guess — that she either went out of the country or went to a practice that flies below the radar.”
The California Medical Board, which investigates doctors, and the California Department of Public Health Services, which licenses clinics and hospitals, said no doctors or facilities are currently being investigated regarding the births. A spokesman for the state health agency said there is no indication the implantations occurred at a facility they license.