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.

artificial intelligence legal exposure

Healthcare AI and HIPAA compliance: 5 key legal questions + answers

Training AI for use in healthcare requires feeding algorithms patient data, and lots of it. This opens data custodians—typically hospitals—to various points of potential legal exposure.

Lab owner confesses to $359M fraud involving COVID tests

A married couple operating a lab in California admit to billing Medicare for unnecessary rapid COVID tests.

cardiovascular emergency ambulance

Family of man who died of a heart attack settles lawsuit for $1.9M after error led to delayed care

EMTs waited outside the man's house for 13 minutes before finally entering. The delay, it turns out, was due to an error in the dispatcher's computer system. 

Thumbnail

Cardiologist’s date rape trial scheduled for March

The 35-year-old cardiologist faces a total of 51 felony charges. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.

McGRATH MAC video laryngoscope

Medtronic warns of unauthorized sale of dangerous products

Before they were stolen, the McGRATH MAC laryngoscopes in question were set to be destroyed.

Thumbnail

Florida nurse convicted in $200M Medicare fraud scheme, could spend decades in prison

Elizabeth Hernandez signed thousands of orders for unnecessary genetic tests and orthotic braces for patients she had not even examined, according to the DOJ.

unhappy desperate girl on psychiatric couch

DOJ accuses addiction recovery providers of offering kickbacks to patients, running 'unsafe' facilities

Brookline-based Bournewood Health Systems and First Psychiatric Planners are also accused of pushing patients to attend facilities known to be overcrowded and dangerous. 

doctor in handcuffs after being arrested

Cardiologist to pay $6.5M after trading kickbacks for imaging referrals in complex fraud scheme

In addition to the hefty fine, the New York physician has agreed to relinquish ownership of his cardiology practice after exchanging kickbacks for PET and SPECT referrals for more than a decade.

Around the web

Compensation for heart specialists continues to climb. What does this say about cardiology as a whole? Could private equity's rising influence bring about change? We spoke to MedAxiom CEO Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, a veteran cardiologist himself, to learn more.

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”