From a former CFO suing a Texas hospital for defamation to physicians and a medical group CEO paying $6.7 million to settle billing fraud allegations, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits and settlements making headlines.
1. UNC, Vidant settle dispute over hospital board shuffle
The University of North Carolina and Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, N.C., resolved a months-long lawsuit over who should serve on Vidant's board.
2. Former CFO sues Texas hospital for defamation
The former CFO of Huntsville (Texas) Memorial Hospital is suing the hospital for breach of contract and defamation.
3. Fresenius to pay $5.2M to settle Medicare whistleblower charges
Fresenius Medical Care will pay $5.2 million to resolve whistleblower allegations that it ran Hepatitis B tests on dialysis patients more frequently than medically necessary and overbilled Medicare.
4. Feds sue Texas hospital executives over $167M loan
The federal government filed a complaint alleging a Texas hospital, a healthcare company in Tennessee and three executives improperly obtained and misused a federal loan.
5. New York BCBS plans allegedly overpaid hospitals by $85M
A whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee of HealthNow New York, the parent company of BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and BlueShield of Northeastern New York, accuses the company of making "significant overpayments" to healthcare facilities across the state.
6. New Jersey hospital nurses improperly sedated patients with Benadryl, lawsuit claims
A nurse at Long Branch, N.J.-based Monmouth Medical Center alleges her boss retaliated against her for reporting that nurses were improperly sedating patients in the hospital's psychiatric unit.
7. Physicians, medical group CEO pay $6.7M to settle billing fraud case in California
An ophthalmology group in California, its former CEO and several of its physicians paid the federal government and the state of California a combined $6.65 million to settle false claims allegations.
8. Physician sues Kaiser Permanente over opioid-related patient satisfaction scores
An emergency medicine physician filed a lawsuit Sept. 18 against Kaiser Permanente over its patient satisfaction scoring methodology, which she alleges incentivized overprescribing of opioids and hurt her career at the Oakland, Calif.-based health system.
9. US appeals Mayo Clinic's $11.5M tax refund win
The U.S. government appealed a lower court ruling that sided with Mayo Clinic in a dispute over an $11.5 million tax refund.
10. CHS to erase up to $50M in medical debt for former hospital patients
As part of a legal settlement, Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems agreed to forgive up to $50 million in medical debt for former patients at Deaconess and Valley hospitals in Washington state.
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