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Welcome to the nexus of ethics, psychology, morality, technology, health care, and philosophy
Showing posts with label Financial Settlement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Financial Settlement. Show all posts

Monday, July 31, 2023

Top Arkansas psychiatrist accused of falsely imprisoning patients and Medicaid fraud

Laura Strickler & Stephanie Gosk
NBCnews.com
Originally posted July 23, 2023

Here is an excerpt:

The man who led the unit at the time, Dr. Brian Hyatt, was one of the most prominent psychiatrists in Arkansas and the chairman of the board that disciplines physicians. But he’s now under investigation by state and federal authorities who are probing allegations ranging from Medicaid fraud to false imprisonment.

VanWhy’s release marked the second time in two months that a patient was released from Hyatt’s unit only after a sheriff’s deputy showed up with a court order, according to court records.

“I think that they were running a scheme to hold people as long as possible, to bill their insurance as long as possible before kicking them out the door, and then filling the bed with someone else,” said Aaron Cash, a lawyer who represents VanWhy.

VanWhy and at least 25 other former patients have sued Hyatt, alleging that they were held against their will in his unit for days and sometimes weeks. And Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office has accused Hyatt of running an insurance scam, claiming to treat patients he rarely saw and then billing Medicaid at “the highest severity code on every patient,” according to a search warrant affidavit.

As the lawsuits piled up, Hyatt remained chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board. But he resigned from the board in late May after Drug Enforcement Administration agents executed a search warrant at his private practice. 

“I am not resigning because of any wrongdoing on my part but so that the Board may continue its important work without delay or distraction,” he wrote in a letter. “I will continue to defend myself in the proper forum against the false allegations being made against me.”

Northwest Medical Center in Springdale “abruptly terminated” Hyatt’s contract in May 2022, according to the attorney general’s search warrant affidavit. 

In April, the hospital agreed to pay $1.1 million in a settlement with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. Northwest Medical Center could not provide sufficient documentation that justified the hospitalization of 246 patients who were held in Hyatt’s unit, according to the attorney general’s office. 

As part of the settlement, the hospital denied any wrongdoing.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Bishop says Catholic Church suffers from 'crisis of sexual morality'

Daniel Burke
CNN.com
Originally posted August 1, 2018

The sexual abuse accusations against a prominent American archbishop reveal a "grievous moral failure" within the Catholic Church, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said on Tuesday.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the Catholic bishops conference, also said the conference "will pursue the many questions" about the accusations against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick "to the full extent of its authority."

"Our Church is suffering from a crisis of sexual morality," DiNardo said. "The way forward must involve learning from past sins."

DiNardo's statement comes as the Catholic Church, including Pope Francis, is facing a quickly escalating sexual abuse scandal that has ensnared top church leaders on several continents.

The information is here.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

CIA Psychologists Settle Torture Case Acknowledging Abuses

Peter Blumberg and Pamela Maclean
Bloomberg News
Originally published August 17, 2017

Two U.S. psychologists who helped design an overseas CIA interrogation program agreed to settle claims they were responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case.

The ACLU called the accord “historic” because it’s the first CIA-linked torture case of its kind that wasn’t dismissed, but said in a statement the terms of the settlement are confidential.

The case, which was set for a U.S. trial starting Sept. 5, focused on alleged abuses in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at secret “black-site” facilities that operated under President George W. Bush. The lawsuit followed the 2014 release of a congressional report on Central Intelligence Agency interrogation techniques.

The claims against the psychologists, who worked as government contractors, were filed on behalf of two suspected enemy combatants who were later released and a third who died in custody as a result of hypothermia during his captivity. All three men were interrogated at a site in Afghanistan, according to the ACLU.

ACLU lawyer Dror Ladin has said the case was a novel attempt to use the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act to fix blame on U.S. citizens for human-rights violations committed abroad, unlike previous cases brought against foreigners.

The article is here.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Researchers retract bogus, Dr. Oz-touted study on green coffee bean weight-loss pills

By Abby Phillip
The Washington Post
Originally published October 22, 2014

Researchers have retracted a bogus study that was used by a company to validate weight-loss claims for green coffee bean pills, one of several questionable supplements being scrutinized by federal regulators.

The study, which was conducted in India but written by researchers from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, initially claimed that people who used the supplement lost 16 percent of their body fat (about about 18 pounds each) with or without diet and exercise.

The entire story is here.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Kaiser to pay $4 million fine over access to mental health services

By Cynthia H. Craft
Sacramento Bee
Originally posted September 10, 2014

Health care giant Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay a $4 million fine to California’s overseer of managed health care following an 18-month battle with state officials over whether Kaiser blocked patients from timely access to mental health services.

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Moreover, the department found that Kaiser was likely violating state and federal mental health parity laws. The California Mental Health Parity Act requires managed care providers to provide psychiatric services that are equal in quality and access to their primary care services.

The entire article is here.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Millions of electronic medical records breached

New U.S. government data shows that 32 million residents affected since 2009.

By Ronald Campbell and Deborah Schoch
The Oregon Country Register
Published: July 7, 2014

Thieves, hackers and careless workers have breached the medical privacy of nearly 32 million Americans, including 4.6 million Californians, since 2009.

Those numbers, taken from new U.S. Health & Human Services Department data, underscore a vulnerability of electronic health records.

These records are more detailed than most consumer credit or banking files and could open the door to widespread identity theft, fraud, or worse.

The entire article is here.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Argosy University Denver fined $3.3 million for deceptive practices

By Anthony Cotton
The Denver Post
Originally posted December 5, 2013

Argosy University Denver, a for-profit school, will pay $3.3 million in restitution and fines for engaging in deceptive marketing practices, the Colorado attorney general's office said Thursday.

"Our investigation revealed a pattern of Argosy recklessly launching doctoral degree programs without substantiating or supporting that they led to the advertised outcomes," Deputy Attorney General Jan Zavislan said in a statement. "That is illegal under Colorado law and why we are holding Argosy accountable."

The entire story is here.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Johnson & Johnson to pay over $2 billion to settle Risperdal investigations

By Joe Carlson
Modern Healthcare
Posted: November 4, 2013

In the largest-ever legal settlement for sales of a single drug, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $2 billion and plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of misbranding to end long-running investigations of its sales tactics involving Risperdal.

The New Brunswick, N.J.-based company and subsidiaries Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Scios told investors in August 2011 that they had agreed to settle allegations that J&J promoted its anti-psychotic Risperdal for off-label uses. On Thursday, company officials are scheduled to plead guilty in federal court.

The entire story is here.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Pfizer Settles a Drug Marketing Case for $491 Million

By KATIE THOMAS
The New York Times
Published: July 30, 2013

The drug maker Pfizer agreed to pay $491 million to settle criminal and civil charges over the illegal marketing of the kidney-transplant drug Rapamune, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.

The settlement is the latest in a string of big-money cases involving the sales practices of major pharmaceutical companies; four years ago, Pfizer paid $2.3 billion for improperly marketing several drugs. The recent case centers on the practices of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which Pfizer acquired in 2009.

The entire story is here.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

South Shore Hospital to pay $750,000 to settle data breach charges

By Hiawatha Bray
The Boston Globe
Originally published on May 25, 2012

It will cost South Shore Hospital in Weymouth $750,000 to settle charges related to a 2010 data breach that compromised the personal information of more than 800,000 people.

The settlement, approved Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court, included a civil penalty of $250,000 and $225,000 for a fund to be used by the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to promote education on the protection of personal data. South Shore Hospital was also credited for $275,000 it spent on security measures following the breach.

The entire story is here.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Abbott Settles Marketing Lawsuit

By Michael S. Schmidt and Katie Thomas
The New York Times - Business Day
Originally published May 7, 2012

The pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories said on Monday that it had reached an agreement with the federal and nearly all state governments to pay $1.6 billion in connection with its illegal marketing of the anti-seizure drug Depakote.

The settlement comes as the Justice Department and the states have increased scrutiny of the sales and marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies, particularly in cases in which they market drugs for uses that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Doctors may prescribe drugs for any purpose, but pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from promoting drugs for conditions that are not approved by the agency.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

J.&J. Fined $1.2 Billion in Drug Case

By Katie Thomas
The New York Times
Originally published April 11, 2012

A judge in Arkansas ordered Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary to pay more than $1.2 billion in fines on Wednesday, a day after a jury found that the companies had minimized or concealed the dangers associated with an antipsychotic drug.

The fine, which experts said ranked among the largest on record for a state fraud case involving a drug company, is the most recent in a string of legal losses for Johnson & Johnson related to its marketing of the drug, Risperdal.

In January, Texas settled a similar case with the subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, for $158 million. Last year, a South Carolina judge levied civil penalties of $327 million against Janssen, and in 2010, a Louisiana jury awarded nearly $258 million in damages.


Here is a prior story about Johnson and Johnson with Risperdal.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

2 Former Kaplan Employees Settle Lawsuit and Withdraw Whistle-Blower Case

By Goldie Blumenstyk
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Originally published on April 11, 2012

Two former employees of a Kaplan-owned college in Pennsylvania who alleged in a 2006 federal whistle-blower lawsuit that the company had falsified graduation and job-placement rates and had paid illegal bonuses to student recruiters have withdrawn their suit. The two also reached a settlement with Kaplan on an employment-discrimination claim alleging that the company had fired them in retaliation for saying they would report wrongdoing.

The terms of the settlement are confidential.

The entire story is here.

Tenet to pay almost $43 million to settle false claims

Reuters
Originally published April 10, 2012

Tenet Healthcare Corp has agreed to pay almost $43 million to settle allegations that it overbilled the federal Medicare healthcare program for treating patients at certain rehabilitation facilities, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The entire story is here.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Pfizer Settlement on Foreign Bribery Charges

By Christopher Matthews
The Wall Street Journal Blogs

So that’s how it got started.

The government’s sprawling foreign bribery sweep into the pharmaceutical industry was built, in a large part, on information Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson provided about their competitors, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

Not surprisingly, ratting on your competitors has its rewards.

Pfizer will pay more than $60 million to settle alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to people familiar with the matter. The sum could have been higher had Pfizer not cooperated with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $70 million in April to settle its FCPA probe, and likewise benefited from dropping a dime on its competitors.

The two companies’ cooperation contributed to a government investigation that has affected several major drug companies, also including Merck & Co., AstraZeneca PLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, according to the people familiar with the investigations. The four companies last year said in regulatory filings that they received letters of inquiry from the Justice Department and the SEC. The companies have said they are cooperating with investigators.

The entire story is here.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Merck to Pay $950 Million Over Vioxx

By Duff Wilson
The New York Times

Merck has agreed to pay $950 million and has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge over the marketing and sales of the painkiller Vioxx, the company and the Justice Department said Tuesday.

The negotiated settlement, which includes resolution of civil cases, was the latest of a series of fraud cases brought by federal and state prosecutors against major pharmaceutical companies.

By the time Vioxx, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999, was pulled off the market in 2004 because evidence showed that it posed a substantial heart risk, about 25 million Americans had taken the drug.

In a statement on Tuesday, Merck said that it had previously disclosed the seven-year investigation by the United States attorney in Massachusetts and had charged $950 million against its earnings in October 2010.

Merck agreed to pay a $321 million criminal fine and plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of illegally introducing a drug into interstate commerce, the Justice Department said in a news release. The charge arose from Merck’s promotion of Vioxx to treat rheumatoid arthritis before the Food and Drug Administration approved it for that purpose in 2002.

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No person was held liable for Merck’s conduct. “It’s just a cost of doing business until a pharmaceutical executive does a perp walk,” said Erik Gordon, a pharmaceutical analyst and clinical assistant professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

The whole story is here.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

In Deal, Hundreds of Mentally Ill People Will Leave Confinement of Nursing Home

By Anemona Hartcollis
The New York Times
Published September 12, 2011

Hundreds of mentally ill people who have been confined to nursing homes, sometimes in prisonlike conditions, would move to apartments or other housing within three years under a legal settlement with New York State.

The settlement resolved a case that was filed in Brooklyn federal court in 2006 and that accused the state of violating the spirit of its own longstanding rules for housing mentally ill people.

In researching the case, the plaintiffs found that psychiatric centers and nursing homes had developed “turnaround agreements, which essentially were written agreements to transfer patients back and forth,” Veronica S. Jung, senior staff attorney for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which helped to represent plaintiffs, said Monday.

“This certainly raises broader, troubling questions about the role of nursing homes, and their financial stakes, within the mental health care system,” Ms. Jung said.

The settlement came as the judge in the case, Brian M. Cogan, set a trial date for early October, Ms. Jung said.

“It did seem pretty clear that the specter of going to trial in the next few days probably motivated the state to move more quickly in negotiations,” Ms. Jung said. The state has agreed to pay $2.5 million in legal fees and costs to the plaintiffs’ counsel.

Andrew J. Zambelli, counselor to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, said the state had settled the case because “it just jibed with our kind of policy viewpoint — care for the vulnerable, into the community, using money appropriately.”

Under longstanding legal principle in New York and elsewhere, the mentally ill cannot be confined unless they are considered a threat to themselves or others, and should be housed in the least restrictive setting appropriate for their needs.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Cuomo administration has agreed to reform the process used to assess whether patients are capable of living in the community and want to live there. The state has also promised to hire independent contractors who would be trained to make the assessments.

The entire story can be found here.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Info dump yields $40K settlement

By Bryan Cohen
Legal Newsline


North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced on Wednesday that a Charlotte doctor has paid $40,000 for allegedly dumping files that contained patients' financial and medical information. 

Dr. Ervin Batchelor owns and operates the Carolina Center for Development and Rehabilitation, which is a psychological testing and treatment facility located in Charlotte. In June 2010, the facility allegedly disposed of 1,000 patient files illegally by dumping them at the West Mecklenburg Recycling Center.

The files allegedly contained health information, insurance account numbers, drivers' license numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and names for 1,600 people.

"Any business you entrust with your information has a duty to keep it safe," Cooper said. "Sensitive financial and health information should never be carelessly dumped, putting customers and patients at risk of identity theft."

Under a state law Cooper pushed through the General Assembly in 2005, businesses that dispose of records containing personal identifying information must destroy or shred those records so that identity thieves can't retrieve information from discarded files that have been carelessly thrown away. Medical records also face added restrictions under federal health privacy laws.

The Carolina Center records were recovered by Mecklenburg County, N.C., officials, who contacted Cooper's office.

As part of a settlement, Batchelor paid $40,000 and agreed to abide by both federal and state laws that protect people's personal financial and health information.

The Carolina Center has already notified the patients whose information was placed at risk. State law requires businesses, as well as state and local government agencies, to notify consumers if a security breach may have put their personal information at risk. The breaches of security must also be reported to the Consumer Protection Division. Since state laws on security breaches took effect in 2005 and 2006, a total of 889 breaches involving information and more than 3.3 million state consumers have been reported.

Cooper's CPD has won settlements in multiple other document dumping cases, including against a Gastonia, N.C., movie rental store, two mortgage lenders from the Charlotte area and a Greensboro, N.C., urgent care clinic.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Wellpoint Reaches Settlement on Data Loss


WellPoint has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in California Superior Court for the potential exposure of data belonging to more than 600,000 health insurance applicants on a company-run website.

Under the settlement, WellPoint agreed to offer credit monitoring services for two years to all affected individuals, according to a report by amednews.com.

The company agreed to reimburse affected individuals up to $50,000 for any identity theft losses; individuals have until May 31, 2016, to file an identity theft loss claim. The company also agreed to donate a total of $250,000 to two nonprofit organizations whose efforts are directed at protecting consumers' privacy on the Internet, according to the report.

The situation came to light when an applicant to WellPoint-owned Anthem Blue Cross of California sued the company in March 2010, according to a report by amednews.com. The applicant said he was able to manipulate the web address within the site and gain access to other applicants’ information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and health and financial information.

When the class-action lawsuit was filed, the company said an upgrade to its system caused the information to be exposed. A third-party vendor had said that security measures were in place, when if fact they were not.

A hearing is scheduled for November at which time the court will decide whether to approve the settlement, the report noted.

Last month, WellPoint agreed to pay $100,000 in fines for delaying notification to 32,000 Indiana customers affected by a possible data breach in a settlement with the Indiana Attorney General.