Legal News

Stories about physicians and other healthcare professionals involved in lawsuits—as either a plaintiff or a defendantor accused of breaking the law. Various legal updates or unusual stories in the news may land here.

Department of Justice DOJ

DOJ accuses doctor of illegally prescribing opiates in exchange for sex

Ritesh Kalra, MD, allegedly wrote 31,000 opioid prescriptions between 2019 and 2025, many of which were illegitimate. He is accused of inappropriately touching patients in exchange for oxycodone scripts as part of a five-count criminal indictment.

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Steward sues former CEO over alleged pilfering that contributed to bankruptcy

Former Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre, MD, and other executives are accused in a $1.4 billion legal filing of paying themselves hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, despite the health system being insolvent.

Blue Cross Blue Shield BCBS

Hospital sues insurer over use of AI to deny $2M in claims

AdventHealth Shawnee Mission is suing Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City over its AI claims audits, which have rejected some 350 incidents of patient care. The hospital claims the insurer is violating state and federal laws.

Supreme Court SCOTUS

HHS formally lays off thousands of employees following SCOTUS ruling

After the Supreme Court lifted a lower court injunction, approximately 10,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were officially terminated.

UnitedHealthcare UHC UnitedHealth

Report: UnitedHealth allegedly using legal threats to silence critics

In a new report, the New York Times details multiple incidents of the insurance giant using legal threats to silence social media users and news outlets, citing the murder of Brian Thompson and the threat of rising violence as the basis for its claims. 

medical debt

Judge overturns Biden-era rule that curbed medical debt reporting after CFPB backs off

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau joined trade lobby groups in asking a federal court to vacate the rule, which would have forbidden creditors from considering medical debt in lending decisions.

Doctor accused of forging vaccine cards and injecting children with saline has all charges dropped

Under the direction of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, charges against Michael Kirk Moore Jr., MD, were dropped just as his trial began. He had been accused of destroying 1,937 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and accepting kickbacks for falsifying vaccine records.

Lehigh Valley Hospital

Lehigh Valley Health admits to controlled substances violations in $2.75M settlement

The Pennsylvania-based health system reported drug diversion incidents to authorities involving a pharmacy technician who used employee passwords to steal pills from one of its hospitals.

Around the web

Heartflow, known for its AI-based CCTA evaluations, appears to be going public. The news follows years of momentum for the California-based company, including improved Medicare reimbursements for cardiac CT and a new Category I CPT code for its Plaque Analysis software.

Suman Tandon, MD, an American Society of Nuclear Cardiology board member, explains the group's call on Congress to update a number of healthcare policies. 

The 2026 MPFS proposed rule includes higher conversion factors across the board. However, some cardiology groups remain concerned about a series of reimbursement reductions for high-value cardiology services.