鶹ýӰ

Children's Hospital Accused of Sexual Abuse; AMA Joins Class-Action Against Cigna

— A weekly roundup of healthcare's encounters with the courts

by Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today

MedpageToday
Legal Break over a blindfolded Lady Justice statue holding scales.

Nine former patients are and its medical director over allegations of sexual and physical abuse. (CBS News Richmond)

NewYork-Presbyterian will pay $2.6 million to settle claims that a former physician -- who was not named in the settlement agreement -- implantable defibrillator battery replacements. (Reuters)

Patients are charging in that Michigan gynecologic oncologist Vinay Malviya, MD, performed radical hysterectomies on them when less invasive procedures would have sufficed. Malviya previously agreed to pay the feds $775,000 to settle similar allegations. (WXYZ Detroit)

San Diego neurosurgeon Lokesh Tantuwaya, MD, pleaded guilty to taking from now-defunct Pacific Hospital to perform spinal surgeries there. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The American Medical Association and some state physician groups for allegedly failing to pay medical claims in full after members submitted them through the PPO network Multiplan. (Becker's)

Patients have over new restrictions on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care. (CBS Miami)

Iowa plastic surgeon Ronald Bergman, DO, will pay $800,000 to resolve allegations that he wrongfully billed Medicare and/or Medicaid for services rendered by others, and for unnecessary applications of skin substitute products, .

Ohio doctor Amy Swegan, MD, pleaded guilty to felony charges and admitted to accepting $291,000 in kickbacks from telemedicine companies for approving questionable prescriptions for pain creams, genetic tests for cancer, and durable medical equipment, .

There were several enforcement actions last week against physicians related to opioids and controlled substances actions. First, to doling out opioids and other controlled substances without legitimate medical reasons at Virginia and West Virginia clinics from 2010 to 2015. (AP)

Rudy Puana, MD, a Hawaiian anesthesiologist, was for his part in a prescription drug trafficking ring. Puana also supplied drugs to his sister, a former prosecutor who is also imprisoned on corruption charges. (Hawaii News Now)

Also, Texas family doctor Stanley Charles Evans, DO, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking violations for without a legitimate medical purpose, according to the DOJ.

And finally, Michigan doctor Tete Oniango, MD, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for giving out some 12,500 hydrocodone pills that weren't medically necessary, .

  • author['full_name']

    Kristina Fiore leads MedPage’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com.