Here are 10 recent lawsuits or settlements involving hospitals, beginning with the most recent.
1. California Accuses Sutter Health of Overbilling More Than $100M for Anesthesia
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones filed to intervene in a whistleblower suit accusing Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, a 24-hospital system, of falsely billing for millions of dollars of anesthesia services. Commissioner Jones seeks monetary penalties and damages as well as broad injunctive relief to stop fraudulent billing practices. Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected in fraudulent charges, if not more.
2. Tenet Sues CHS: New Battle Lines in Healthcare Takeovers — Whistleblowing
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has filed a federal lawsuit, accusing Brentwood, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems of systematically overbilling Medicare and unnecessarily converting emergency department visits, or observation stays, into inpatient admissions. If treated as false claims, CHS' conduct could result in liabilities in excess of $1 billion for 2006 to 2009 alone. CHS has called the allegations self-serving and groundless.
3. Florida Orthopedic Group Sues Osler Medical for Failing to Recognize Agreement Termination
BACK Center, an orthopedic surgeon group in Melbourne, Fla., and its medical director Richard Hynes, MD, are suing Osler Medical in Melbourne for failing to comply in an agreement. BACK Center and Osler signed an agreement in 2008, stating BACK employees would become Osler employees. The agreement also required a 60-day notice before termination. Dr. Hynes wrote a letter dated Dec. 7, 2010, which was meant as a termination notice. He filed a complaint last month alleging Osler officials didn't recognize the termination, and that Osler hasn't provided full financial accounting to BACK Center for services rendered.
4. Florida Neurosurgeon Challenges Non-Compete Clause With Lawsuit
Florida neurosurgeon Eric Eskioglu, MD, filed a complaint with circuit court, claiming the non-compete clause in his contract with Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Memorial Health System is not enforceable due to the shortage of specialists in the field. The clause restricts Dr. Eskioglu from engaging in neurosurgical practice within a 50-mile radius of Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers for three years after leaving the hospital — voluntarily or involuntarily. It has complicated Dr. Eskioglu's plan to begin practicing with Physicians Regional Medical Center in Naples, Fla.
5. North Carolina's Rex Hospital Pays $1.9M to Settle Medicare Fraud Allegations
Rex Hospital agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle Medicare fraud charges resulting from a whistleblower suit, which alleged a number of hospitals were unnecessarily keeping Medicare patients overnight following kyphoplasty procedures to boost Medicare revenues when the procedure can be performed on an outpatient basis. Rex is the second North Carolina hospital to settle such charges. So far, the government has recovered $103 million from the case.
6. HCA, Hospital Foundation Head to Court Over Ownership Dispute
HCA and the Foundation are scheduled to return to court over the ownership of Portsmouth (N.H.) Regional Hospital on May 2. The lawsuit stems from the 1983 sale of the hospital, which created the foundation. A condition of the sale allowed the foundation to buy back the hospital if HCA ever put it up for sale or transfer. The Foundation filed suit in 2006, claiming the private equity purchase of HCA that year activated the buy-back condition. New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a previous decision that a leveraged buyout of HCA did not activate the buy-back condition, but it also determined that a 1999 transfer of the hospital's assets through an HCA corporate restructuring may have triggered the condition.
7. Former Employees Accuse West Virginia Hospital of Withholding Pay For Accrued Sick Leave
Former employees of St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, W. Va., have filed a class-action lawsuit against its former parent company, Houston-based Signature Hospitals, alleging the system failed to pay them for accrued sick leave following the hospital's acquisition by West Virginia United Health System. Although nine former employees were listed in the suit, attorneys believe 613 former employees were not appropriately compensated by Signature.
8. Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Oregon State Hospital Put On Hold
A gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a transgender patient against Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Ore., has been put on hold but may be put to rest because the patient will be discharged from the hospital's psychiatric facility soon. Rebekah Brewis accused the hospital of failing to provide proper treatment for her gender identity disorder and sheltering her in an all-male ward under constant staff monitoring. Ms. Brewis requested a court order that would require the hospital to provide her with proper care, which the state eventually denied. Later, a circuit court judge overruled the state's decision to toss the case.However, the decision may have come too late, as a state attorney wrote a letter to the judge stating Ms. Brewis' impending discharge gives no reason for a case hearing.
9. Virginia's Inova Health Settles Allegations of Not Providing Sign Language Interpreters
Falls Church, Va.-based Inova Health System has agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed one of its hospitals violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide a sign language interpreter to an expectant mother who is deaf.
10. Deaf Women Sue Maryland Hospital for Denying an Interpreter
Two deaf women have filed a federal lawsuit against St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., alleging that the hospital refused to provide or pay for a sign language interpreter when one of the women experienced a medical emergency. Jennifer Simmons of Frederick, Md., filed the suit with her mother, Susanna Paulay. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
1. California Accuses Sutter Health of Overbilling More Than $100M for Anesthesia
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones filed to intervene in a whistleblower suit accusing Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health, a 24-hospital system, of falsely billing for millions of dollars of anesthesia services. Commissioner Jones seeks monetary penalties and damages as well as broad injunctive relief to stop fraudulent billing practices. Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected in fraudulent charges, if not more.
2. Tenet Sues CHS: New Battle Lines in Healthcare Takeovers — Whistleblowing
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has filed a federal lawsuit, accusing Brentwood, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems of systematically overbilling Medicare and unnecessarily converting emergency department visits, or observation stays, into inpatient admissions. If treated as false claims, CHS' conduct could result in liabilities in excess of $1 billion for 2006 to 2009 alone. CHS has called the allegations self-serving and groundless.
3. Florida Orthopedic Group Sues Osler Medical for Failing to Recognize Agreement Termination
BACK Center, an orthopedic surgeon group in Melbourne, Fla., and its medical director Richard Hynes, MD, are suing Osler Medical in Melbourne for failing to comply in an agreement. BACK Center and Osler signed an agreement in 2008, stating BACK employees would become Osler employees. The agreement also required a 60-day notice before termination. Dr. Hynes wrote a letter dated Dec. 7, 2010, which was meant as a termination notice. He filed a complaint last month alleging Osler officials didn't recognize the termination, and that Osler hasn't provided full financial accounting to BACK Center for services rendered.
4. Florida Neurosurgeon Challenges Non-Compete Clause With Lawsuit
Florida neurosurgeon Eric Eskioglu, MD, filed a complaint with circuit court, claiming the non-compete clause in his contract with Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Memorial Health System is not enforceable due to the shortage of specialists in the field. The clause restricts Dr. Eskioglu from engaging in neurosurgical practice within a 50-mile radius of Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers for three years after leaving the hospital — voluntarily or involuntarily. It has complicated Dr. Eskioglu's plan to begin practicing with Physicians Regional Medical Center in Naples, Fla.
5. North Carolina's Rex Hospital Pays $1.9M to Settle Medicare Fraud Allegations
Rex Hospital agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle Medicare fraud charges resulting from a whistleblower suit, which alleged a number of hospitals were unnecessarily keeping Medicare patients overnight following kyphoplasty procedures to boost Medicare revenues when the procedure can be performed on an outpatient basis. Rex is the second North Carolina hospital to settle such charges. So far, the government has recovered $103 million from the case.
6. HCA, Hospital Foundation Head to Court Over Ownership Dispute
HCA and the Foundation are scheduled to return to court over the ownership of Portsmouth (N.H.) Regional Hospital on May 2. The lawsuit stems from the 1983 sale of the hospital, which created the foundation. A condition of the sale allowed the foundation to buy back the hospital if HCA ever put it up for sale or transfer. The Foundation filed suit in 2006, claiming the private equity purchase of HCA that year activated the buy-back condition. New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a previous decision that a leveraged buyout of HCA did not activate the buy-back condition, but it also determined that a 1999 transfer of the hospital's assets through an HCA corporate restructuring may have triggered the condition.
7. Former Employees Accuse West Virginia Hospital of Withholding Pay For Accrued Sick Leave
Former employees of St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg, W. Va., have filed a class-action lawsuit against its former parent company, Houston-based Signature Hospitals, alleging the system failed to pay them for accrued sick leave following the hospital's acquisition by West Virginia United Health System. Although nine former employees were listed in the suit, attorneys believe 613 former employees were not appropriately compensated by Signature.
8. Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Oregon State Hospital Put On Hold
A gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a transgender patient against Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Ore., has been put on hold but may be put to rest because the patient will be discharged from the hospital's psychiatric facility soon. Rebekah Brewis accused the hospital of failing to provide proper treatment for her gender identity disorder and sheltering her in an all-male ward under constant staff monitoring. Ms. Brewis requested a court order that would require the hospital to provide her with proper care, which the state eventually denied. Later, a circuit court judge overruled the state's decision to toss the case.However, the decision may have come too late, as a state attorney wrote a letter to the judge stating Ms. Brewis' impending discharge gives no reason for a case hearing.
9. Virginia's Inova Health Settles Allegations of Not Providing Sign Language Interpreters
Falls Church, Va.-based Inova Health System has agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed one of its hospitals violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by failing to provide a sign language interpreter to an expectant mother who is deaf.
10. Deaf Women Sue Maryland Hospital for Denying an Interpreter
Two deaf women have filed a federal lawsuit against St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., alleging that the hospital refused to provide or pay for a sign language interpreter when one of the women experienced a medical emergency. Jennifer Simmons of Frederick, Md., filed the suit with her mother, Susanna Paulay. The suit seeks unspecified damages.