Articles related to LEGAL MATTERS

Congress is looking into allegations that several nurse staffing agencies have been engaging in price gouging during the pandemic by charging hospitals extremely high fees for the services their nurses provide. The allegations have stirred the nursing community, which is growing concerned about possible implications, particularly whether the political scrutiny will result in state-level restrictions placed on the amounts that staffing agencies can charge for nursing services.

The plaintiff, an emergency medicine physician, filed the lawsuit for wrongful termination against EmCare’s Kansas and Missouri subsidiaries, alleging that he was terminated because he complained about dangerous and illegal understaffing at the Overland Park emergency department. On March 2, 2021, the Missouri Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case, finalizing the judgment in the plaintiff’s favor.

That’s the question in this highly unusual case, in which the plaintiff made an emergency motion for a mistrial, arguing that the jury witnessing the defendant coming to the aid of one of their fellow jurors may have prejudiced the jury. Read this fascinating story from MPR and ask yourself whether the situation had influenced the verdict in any way or resulted in a denial of a fair trial.

In a scheme to defraud health insurance programs for nearly 10 years, Javaid Perwaiz, MD, caused nearly $21 million in losses to private and government payers for unnecessary surgeries and procedures, such as irreversible hysterectomies, improper sterilizations, and others. He was convicted on 52 counts of healthcare fraud and other charges tied to these unwarranted procedures, and previously faced a conviction for felony tax fraud in the 1990s, as well as earlier accusations of performing unnecessary hysterectomies that led to his firing from a hospital.

A second-year psychiatry resident filed a lawsuit in June 2021 against the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia for gross and corporate negligence, stemming from an attack in February 2021 in which the resident was repeatedly stabbed in the face reportedly by a patient wielding a lunch-tray metal knife and sharp pen.

The Journal of Clinical Oncology has a heartfelt account of one family’s struggle to access medical records after the death of a child from a brain tumor. Closing down online access to medical records is a common practice at hospitals and healthcare clinics following the death of a patient, often to the pain of family members who still have questions and seek answers.