Florida lawmakers are proposing a package of healthcare laws for the state's 2024 legislative session, including measures to redirect patients from hospital emergency departments. 

Four health systems in Oregon are seeking to resurrect a lawsuit in which they contend the  state's inadequate mental healthcare system is causing them to be overburdened with psychiatric patients whom they're ill-equipped to care for, The Lund Report shared Dec. 7.

The Knoxville Police Department officially opened a homicide investigation on Dec. 7 into the death of a nurse who was attacked by a patient at East Tennessee Behavioral Health Center on Sept. 23.

From a medical equipment company owner receiving a 15-year sentence for a $24 million scheme to the conviction of a New York physician in a scheme that subjected Medicaid patients to unnecessary radiological tests, here are 10 healthcare billing fraud cases Becker's has reported since Nov. 27:

Hazard, Ky.-based Appalachian Regional Healthcare and one of its cardiologists agreed to pay over $3 million to resolve allegations they submitted improper Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid claims for services not covered.

 Hours after a Texas judge granted a woman's request to have an abortion, the state's attorney general sent a letter to hospitals in Houston, saying they may face civil and legal consequences if they permit the procedure to occur. 

A medical resident and two nurses at Newark (N.J.) Beth Israel Medical Center were stabbed Dec. 8, according to police and the hospital. 

Florida lawmakers are proposing a package of healthcare laws for the state's 2024 legislative session that would expand the healthcare workforce, address emergency room crowding, and create a loan program for healthcare innovators. 

A panel of outside experts who reviewed Harvard Medical School's morgue operations following allegations that a former employee at the morgue stole and sold human remains from bodies donated for medical research has recommended procedural improvements, multiple media outlets reported Dec. 7. 

Washington University in St. Louis has filed a lawsuit against Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, accusing him of violating HIPAA during an investigation into its youth transgender care center, The Kansas City Star reported Dec. 7. 

The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice has indefinitely suspended a respiratory therapist from practicing in the state after determining she failed to properly prepare a patient for transfer to the ICU, The Star Tribune reported Dec. 7. 

California's minimum wage for healthcare workers is set to increase starting in 2024 under legislation signed into law by the governor this fall, which he is now looking to modify. 

Attorney General John Formella has released the identity of the officer involved in a New Hampshire hospital shooting on Nov. 17 that left a security guard and the suspect dead.

The owner of a pair of medical equipment companies was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of leading a scheme that billed Medicare for more than $24 million in medically unnecessary durable medical equipment and repairs. 

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis, who is presiding over the ongoing lawsuit between former students of the closed Stone Academy nursing school and its owners, wrote in a Dec. 4 preliminary ruling that the students' are likely to prevail.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is weighing a bill that seeks to prohibit noncompete agreements, which would make New York the fifth state with such a ban if enacted. 

A court has ruled in favor of a Michigan hospital that denied a nursing student's request to bring her service dog on rotations, according to a Dec. 5 JD Supra report written by Seyfarth Shaw law firm. 

The owner of Miami-based AMB Research Center, a clinic that conducted clinical trials for new drugs, and a pharmacy technician also employed by it, have both been convicted and sentenced to a combined 117 months — nearly 10 years — in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

New rules from CMS are affecting access to molecular diagnostic testing — a blood test a patient who has received an organ transplant can use at home to track how their body is adjusting to the new organ. 

A nurse at Provo-based Utah Valley Hospital has been arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse after an infant was found with bruises, KSL reported Dec. 5.