A September 29 ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court effectively makes a health facility liable for the professional negligence of a medical staff member who doesn’t have malpractice insurance or who has insurance that doesn’t cover the acts in question. Dr. Kaul performed a spinal fusion on Jim Jarrell at …
Suing the Hand that Feeds You
October 6, 2015 Leave a Comment
Jeffrey Jacobs alleges that Idaho’s Pocatello Hospital violated the False Claims Act because of physician recruitment contracts that were overly generous to his practice group. Jeff should know because he was recruited under one of the contracts and worked for the group for three years. According to the …
Even Brain Surgeons Make Dumb Decisions
September 28, 2015 Leave a Comment
Jay Schindler may be a neurosurgeon, but that didn’t stop him from making a bonehead move in his relations with his employer, Regional Health Physicians (RHP), in South Dakota. RHP hired Schindler to practice neurosurgery. Two years later, he developed various back-related physical issues that interfered …
Two More Hospitals Qualify for Exception to Exception to Grandfather Exception to Elimination of Whole Hospital Exception to Stark Law Prohibition
September 17, 2015 Leave a Comment
The Stark Law generally prohibits physicians from referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to facilities in which they have an ownership interest. There used to be a “whole hospital exception” excluding entire hospitals (as contrasted to departments or parts of hospitals) from the prohibition. The …
Broward Health Wins Most-Illegal-Physician-Comp
September 16, 2015 Leave a Comment
Okay, there’s not really a Most-Illegal-Physician-Compensation Prize. But if there were, Florida’s North Broward Hospital District would have won in a walk. That’s why the district has agreed to pay the government $69.5 million to settle charges that it violated the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute …
Whistleblower Filed Too Early & Too Late for Share of $322M SCAN Scam Recovery
September 2, 2015 1 Comment
In a miracle of bad timing, Jim Swoben managed to lose out on a share of the $322 million recovery against SCAN health Plan by being both too early and too late in filing his qui tam action. During his days as a data encounter manager at SCAN, Jim suspected the company had been double-billing Medicare and …