Emergency Docs Sue HCA, TeamHealth; Nurse Imprisoned Over Rogue Morphine Dosing

Two emergency physicians allege that HCA Healthcare, owner of Mission Health in North Carolina, and staffing company TeamHealth have regularly overbilled government payers. In a recently unsealed lawsuit, Allen Lalor, MD, and Scott Ramming, MD, claimed that HCA and TeamHealth intentionally boost patients’ costs with medically unnecessary trauma alerts and tests, including CT scans, blood tests, and x-rays. (CityView)

Former Iowa physician Lynn Lindaman, MD, was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual abuse against a minor. Police allege Lindaman committed a sex act against “a child born in 2015.” He is also facing a civil suit brought by a woman who said Lindaman sexually assaulted her as a teenager. (KCCI & Iowa Capital Dispatch)

A Pennsylvania nurse was sentenced to 8 to 16 months in prison after giving morphine to a patient without authorization. (Times Observer)

The family of a 19-year-old Penn State student who died during his first week of freshman year is suing Mount Nittany Health for negligence. The student, Patrick Tomany, had a history of blood clots and protein C deficiency, and was concerned that a pain in his buttock was a blood clot. A physician assistant allegedly did not order a test that would have revealed deep vein thrombosis in the right common iliac vein. (StateCollege.com)

A federal judge ruled that the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment by censoring certain views on social media during the COVID pandemic, and issued an injunction barring government officials — including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra — from contacting social media firms to discourage or remove First Amendment-protected speech. (Politico)

A doctor and a nurse who have been accused of negligence in the death of a woman at the San Diego County Jail will stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. Friederike Von Lintig, MD, and nurse Danalee Pascua face up to 4 years in prison if convicted. (NBC San Diego)

Victims are unhappy that Utah ophthalmologist Paul Wade Wyatt, MD, will only serve 5 years in prison, after he blinded them during procedures he wasn’t supposed to be performing. (Daily Mail)

An attorney for Michelle Kapon, MD, has cited the influence of two other physicians in hopes of a lighter sentence for his client, who previously pleaded guilty to her role in a Medicare and Medicaid kickback scheme. (WFMJ)

The U.S. Department of Justice announced a coordinated action that resulted in criminal charges against 78 defendants for their alleged involvement in healthcare fraud schemes totaling more than $2.5 billion. Defendants included telemedicine platform owners, durable medical equipment providers, lab owners, hospice operators, pharmacists, and others. A total of 24 of them were licensed medical providers and six were physicians, according to the HHS Office of Inspector General.

Two Texas medical practices will pay more than $500,000 to settle charges that they improperly billed Medicare for P-Stim devices, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

A Pennsylvania woman was charged with knowingly possessing and making a fake COVID vaccine card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

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