Articles related to LEGAL MATTERS

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.

BMJ’s investigation findings raise questions about data integrity and regulatory oversight concerning Pfizer’s vaccine trial. A regional director told the BMJ that Pfizer falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in the pivotal phase III trial.

An extremely interesting case in New York is examined in this article, which chronicles a female patient suffering from multiple sclerosis and her suit against her neurologist for prescribing a new medication that her attorney feels goes beyond medical malpractice and into fraud under NY’s General Business Law 349: “deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any business, trade or commerce or in the furnishing of any service in this state are hereby declared unlawful.”

There have been few studies that have used validated measures to investigate the sexual harassment of physicians, never mind the sexual harassment of oncologists. According to the authors, this report is the first of its kind to examine the prevalence and types of sexual harassment experienced by oncologists, measuring their work experiences in three forms: sexual attention, sexual coercion, and gender harassment.