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Healthcare law issues including Compliance counseling for HIPAA, Stark law, Anti-kickback Statute, CMP and fraud and abuse defense, healthcare criminal defense, joint ventures, anti-trust, and professional license disputes affecting Mountain West states Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.
By Greg Piche

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Last Entry: November 19, 2009 at 20:27:09

Greg Piche' To Speak on Functional Brain Imagery in address to Colorado Trial Lawyers Association.

Posted on November 19, 2009
Greg Piche" will address the Colorado Trial Lawyer Association at their Program entitled "Simple Solutions for Success in Brain Injury Cases" on November 20, 2009. The program is being held at the Four Points by Sheraton SE, in Denver. His subject will be "The Effective Use of Functional Brain Imagery...

ABORTION RIGHTS: SOPHIE?S CHOICE FOR PROCHOICE WOMEN IN HEALTHCARE REFORM?

Posted on November 16, 2009
ABORTION RIGHTS: SOPHIE?S CHOICE FOR PROCHOICE WOMEN IN HEALTHCARE REFORM? The House of Representatives passed its healthcare reform bill on November 7, including an amendment proposed by Representative Bart Stupak (D) Michigan and Rep. Joe Pitts (R) Pennsylvania excluding any coverage for abortion in the government run plan or in...

COLORADO MEDICAL POT LAW ALL SMOKE?

Posted on November 15, 2009
The good news for Colorado Medical Marijuana smokers is that the Colorado State Constitutional Amendment making possession of pot more medically qualified users and their ?personal care providers? is Constitutional. The bad news is that it is still illegal to sell it...

THE REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE LIABILITY REFORM PACKAGE

Posted on November 08, 2009
Deep in the Republican Alternative Healthcare reform proposal unveiled by Rep. John Boehner (R) Ohio on November third, (The ?Common sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act,? can be found ?Division C- Enacting Real Medical Liability Reform.? This section purports to nationalize state medical malpractice and medical product liability law...

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"TOKE TIME" FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA ? New Federal Enforcement Rules Announced.

Posted on October 19, 2009
The Justice Department announced new guidelines for medical marijuana use and dispensaries today that directs federal law enforcement officials to reallocate their resources away from federal prosecution of medical marijuana users and dispensaries in states that have ?legalized? medical marijuana...

10th Circuit Affirms Summary Dismissal of Nephrologists? Monopolization Shootout in the Streets of Durango.

Posted on October 09, 2009
Dr. Mark F. Bevan has a thriving nephrology practice in Farmington, New Mexico. Mercy Medical Center of nearby Durango, Colorado repeatedly invited him to provide kidney dialysis and other nephrology services in? Durango, which he declined. The hospital then with the financial support of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe hired...

?Don?t Touch The Sheriff:? Tepid Reaction to harassment claim by Chiropractic Practice Results In $100,000.00 Title VII Verdict for Nebraska Therapist

Posted on October 01, 2009
One would think that a health care practice group would be on its toes in dealing with a potential Title VII complainant whose last name was Sheriff and its failure to take her full measure and to promptly and reasonably initiate appropriate action resulted in a $100,000...

HEALTHCARE REFORM PART III:-THERE WILL BE PAIN!

Posted on August 31, 2009
One of the unfortunate realities about Health Care Reform is that there will be pain. The current trajectory of health insurance costs is unsustainable. We are pushing 18% of the Gross National Product, more than double other industrialized countries and severely depressing our competitive edge in the world economy...

CMS ISSUES MEMORANDUM REGARDING HOSPITAL EMTALA OPTIONS IN EVENT OF H1N1 FLU PANDEMIC.

Posted on August 28, 2009
On August 14, 2009, CMS issued a memorandum on requirements of hospitals under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (?EMTALA?) in the event of a surge in hospital emergency room visits for H1N1 influenza treatment. EMTALA requires all hospitals to provide an appropriate medical screening examination on presentation to...

IOWA HOSPITAL COUGHS UP $4.5M TO FEDS TO SETTLE STARK CLAIM THAT IT OVER COMPENSATED EMPLOYED DOCS.

Posted on August 26, 2009
In 2005 a group of physicians from Cedar Valley Medical Specialists in Cedar Valley, Iowa raised concerns with Sen. Charles Grassley, then Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and with the IRS that Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo, Iowa was over compensating some of its employed physicians...

?VULGAR? MYSPACE BLOGING NURSING STUDENT ORDERED REINSTATED BY FEDERAL COURT.

Posted on August 25, 2009
Nina Yoder was a nursing student at the University of Louisville on an obstetrics rotation. In February 2, 2009, she posted a blog article on her MySpace page entitled ?How I witnessed the Miracle of Life.? The article, despite its uplifting title was largely snarkey, even vulgar as described by...

GENERAL COUNSEL LIABILITY IN HEALTH CARE ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE OVERSIGHT.

Posted on July 09, 2009
It is not easy being General Counsel for a health care system and growing more difficult with the advent of Corporate Integrity Agreement and Public Securities Obligations. It is also dangerous and unwise to accept responsibility for Chief Compliance Officer as well as Chief Legal Officer...

THE INTERNET, MYSPACE, MEDICAL PRIVACY AND FAMILY FEUDS.

Posted on June 26, 2009
Two recent and unrelated cases this month involved the unlawful access to private medical records and the posting of them on the internet on MySpace in order to inflict pain in the prosecution of family feuds. Both feuds involved Asian families. In Hawaii, Rhonda Wong-Fernandez, a 22 year old mother...

THE ?AVIATION? MODEL IN HEALTHCARE AND AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 447

Posted on June 14, 2009
In the 1980s the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (?CAST?) determined that eighty five percent of aviation accidents and fifty two percent of all fatal aviation accidents were the result of cognitive error by pilots. CAST pushed for the use of systems, checklists and foolproof communication systems to reduce the human...

Greg Piche' and Joan Ditges RAC Audit Audioconference Scheduled for June 18, 2009

Posted on June 12, 2009
Greg Piche' and Joan Didges, R.N. will present an audioconference on RAC Audits captioned "How to Guard Your Practice from Medicare RAC Audits." on June 18, 2009 at 1:00 P.M. ET. The Webinar is sponsored by Part B News and Decsion Health. Further Information can be found at http://www...

TWENTY-FIVE STEPS IN DEFENSE OF RAC AUDITS.

Posted on June 06, 2009
Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) are in the process of saddling up for the nationwide roll out of their Medicare payment recoupment mission. Here are twenty-five recommended proactive steps to circle the wagons and defend the RAC threat. 1. Develop and implement a written audit defense plan- the government bounty hunters...

RAC AUDITS AND NEW FEDERAL FALSE CLAIMS ACT EXPOSURE.UNDER THE FRAUD ENFORCEMENT RECOVERY ACT OF 2009 (?FERA?).

Posted on May 30, 2009
The federal squeeze of health care providers is underway. Federal Medicare recovery ?bounty hunters,? the Recovery Audit Contractors (?RAC?), are marshalling resources for the anticipated, algorithm primed, data mining hunt for Medicare overpayments from hospitals, physicians, DME companies, hospices and other providers, which is likely to bloom in the second...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VII ? PUBLIC, PROPRIETARY AND PRIVACY TENSIONS IN MEDICAL DEVICES.

Posted on May 25, 2009
The front page of the New York Times today carried a story by Pam Belluck on a hospital?s promotional webcast of Shila Renee Mullins?s brain surgery to extract a malignant tumor, which raised conflicting opinion is about the wisdom, benefit and ethics of the public dissemination of personal medical information,...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART VI ?CHALLENGES TO DATA SECURITY IN INTERNET MEDICAL DEVICE INFORMATION LINKS.

Posted on May 19, 2009
The growing interoperability between medical devices and electronic medical records gives rise to new opportunities in the transmittal and collection of vital medical data. New vulnerabilities arise as well. Last month, the Internet Storm Center sponsored by SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute) warned that the Conflicker worm had infected...

INTERNET MEDICINE: PART V ?TELEMEDICINE AND THE VIRTUAL DOCTOR VISIT.

Posted on May 11, 2009
According to Dr. Roy Schoenberg, M.D., founder of the telemedicine company, American Well, Inc., the Obama administration?s stimulus plan for investment in local community broad band digital capability has far more potential to impact the development of 21st century medicine than the electronic medical records subsidies...

Internet Medicine Part IV: ?Health 2.0.?

Posted on May 06, 2009
?Health 2.0? or ?Medicare 2.0? relates to a new paradigm in the relationship between patients and physicians, in particular the application of Web 2.0 interconnectivity tools or social media technology to the provision of health care. One of the ironies of this movement is the emphasis on sharing rather than...

BOOK REVIEW: Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D., FANTASTIC VOYAGE: LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER, Rodale 2004.

Posted on May 03, 2009
Aubrey de Grey, the British biomedical gerontologist who recently appeared on 60 Minutes and gave a lecture on ?Why We Age and How We Can Avoid It? on TED is convinced that we now have the resources to repair metabolically damaged tissue so as to be able to live for...

INTERNET MEDICINE PART III: FTC issues Notice of Rule Regarding Breach of Security of Personal Health Records.

Posted on April 27, 2009
There is a growing proliferation of on-line personal health records companies who undertake to warehouse and store personal health records for consumers on line. Four of the most prominent of these companies are Google Health, Microsoft Health Vault, RevolutionHealth Health Records and WebMD Personal Health Records...

INTERNET MEDICINE PART II: PHYSICIAN CHAT ROOMS

Posted on April 26, 2009
One of the growing phenomena related to the practice of medicine and the internet is the introduction of physician chat rooms in real time on the web. In new forums like Sermo, approximately 90.000 physicians can currently log on line and discuss clinical issues in real time and obtain broad...

INTERNET MEDICINE ? PART I: The New Concierge Practice.

Posted on April 19, 2009
President Obama?s strong support for the proliferation of Electronic Medical Records (?EMR?) notwithstanding, there remains enormous residence to the digitalization of medical documentation by many physicians who have been in practice over ten years. That resistance is based on cost, complexity, utility, inertia and fear...

CHILD MEDICARE SUIT MAY PROCEED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Posted on April 10, 2009
Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard recently ruled that a motion to dismiss a class action brought by the defendants in McCartney v. Lanier Cansler, Secretary North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, No 7:08-CV-57-H(3), must be denied...

TIME TO REMOVE PROFIT FROM HEALTH CARE FINANCE?

Posted on April 05, 2009
The recent controversy of former Washington Post Reporter T.R. Reid?s abrupt exit and excise from Nightline?s ?Sick Around America? program that ran on March 31, 2009, underscores a growing debate in the U.S. as to whether President Obama?s healthcare reform proposals are, in the words of Mr...

I ESCAPED FR0M A RAC [AUDIT]- A GUEST ARTICLE.

Posted on April 02, 2009
[Todays post is by Joan c. Ditges, RN, the principal in Legal Nurse Associates, Inc. a consulting company engaged in Medical Record Reviews, Summations and Analyis and a consultant to this firm] CMS couldn?t have chosen a more appropriate month for the initial nationwide roll out of the Recovery Audit...

Greg Piche' To Address HFMA Colorado Chapter Annual Conference On April 24, 2009

Posted on March 31, 2009
Greg Piche will address the HFMA Colorado Chapter Annual Conference on April 24, 2009 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Topic will be "Consent Orders - Messenger Model". Recently the Federal Trade Comission issued a press release involvling the messenger model and 2 IPA's, one ow...

Stem Cell Research on Again, Time to Celebrate [Guest Editorial]

Posted on March 26, 2009
Among many other things that the Obama administration addresses --one of the most important far reaching actions in my opinion is the go-ahead to stem cell research. This was important scientific research that can help prevent diseases and in the development of better medicine to give a second chance at...

CAN STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL IN DRUG WAR FINANCE HEALTH CARE REFORM?

Posted on March 25, 2009
Perhaps now is the time to think about it. These may be the most difficult times in the history of the Republic since the Civil War. We are engaged in two foreign wars and Wall Street melt down. Our economy has been in free fall. Runaway health care costs continue...

HCQIA IMMUNITY CAN APPLY TO PEER REVIEW OF PRIVATE PHYSICIAN CONDUCT.

Posted on March 23, 2009
In the recent case of Moore,, MD v. Williamsburg Regional Hospital et al., No. 07-1966 (4th Cir. 2009), a federal court of appeals addressed the issue of how far a hospital peer review can go in considering the private conduct of a physician in suspending his or her hospital privileges...

Failed Abortion Leads To Viable Claim For Wrongful Birth of Healthy Child.

Posted on March 20, 2009
In Dotson V. Bernstein, P.C., M.D., (Colo. App. , No. 08CA 0020 2009), the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed a non-suit granted by the District Court, to hold that Dionne Dotson had stated an actionable claim for negligence and damages against Dr. Dell L...

"Socially Assistive" Robots: New Care Givers?

Posted on March 15, 2009
On March 10, the Washington Post ran a stimulating piece by Anita Slomski ?I?m here to Make You Feel Better,? about the development of interactive robots that have the potential to assist in the care of patients afflicted with autism, stroke, dementia, Alzheimer?s and other conditions that require a caretaker...

LITERALISM RULES IN RESPONDING TO MEDICAL BOARD QUESTIONAIRE.

Posted on March 11, 2009
Dr. Savitra Bhama, a psychiatrist born in the former West Pakistan in 1934 has a license to practice medicine in Michigan and Kentucky. She applied for a license to practice in the State of Ohio. In the questionnaire that the State Medical Board of Ohio required to be submitted along...

Fighting Statistical Sampling in Medicare RAC Audits, Part II of II.

Posted on March 03, 2009

Fighting Statistical Sampling in RAC Medicare Audits, Part I of II

Posted on March 02, 2009

Clink Awaits Record Shirking Shrink.

Posted on February 28, 2009

RECOVERY AUDIT CONTRACTORS (RAC) RETURN MARCH 1.

Posted on February 20, 2009
They?re back!!!. After a brief intermission to allow the Government Accounting Office to deal with challenges to contract awards, the Gov ernment is again gearing up for the 50 state roll out of the Recovery Audit Contract Program where contingent fee contractors get to rummage through the records of hospitals,...

California Charges Colorado Telemedicine Doctor with Crime.

Posted on February 14, 2009
On April 20, 2009, the People v. Hageseth is scheduled to commence trial in San Mateo, California. The Defendant, Christian Hageseth, M.D., a physician formerly licensed in Colorado is charged with violation of Section 2052 of California?s Business and Professional Code, which prohibits the practice of medicine in California without...

Evil In Contamination of Food and Medicine.

Posted on February 07, 2009
It is hard not to applaud the Chinese for their decision to execute officials for the contamination of milk sold domestically and abroad, even for those generally opposed to the death penalty. Unfortunately, the Chinese may have been motivated more by the impact of the unfavorable publicity than real concern...

Exclusive Anethesia Arrangement Fails Personal Services Exemption Under Stark.

Posted on February 03, 2009
Normally, anesthesia services contracts do not receive a lot of scrutiny with respect to Stark or Anti-kickback Statute ("AKS") compliance. Recently, the federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals had a chance to review and reverse a summary judgment granted in favor of a hospital and its anesthesia providers who claimed...

Can Faith Healthing Be a Crime? - Part II

Posted on January 28, 2009
The anticipated criminal trials of Jeffrey and Marie Beagley and Carl and Raylene Worthington in Oregon and Dale and Leiloni Neumann in Wisconsin this year raise again the specter of legal confrontation between individual rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution and the ?police power? of a state...

Can Faith Healing Be A Crime? - Part I

Posted on January 25, 2009
2009 is shaping up to be a watershed year for the prosecution of parents who have undertaken faith healing in lieu of conventional medical or surgical treatment for children with life threatening illnesses or conditions. On Monday, January 26, 2009,Clakamas County in the State of Oregon will be trying Carl...

Getting Out of the National Practitioner Data Bank - Part II

Posted on January 23, 2009
Getting out of the NPDB is perhaps equivalent to escaping from Alcatraz ? a near impossible feat. Yet there are those who have accomplished it. The easiest way of course is to convince the hospital or other reporting entity that the report was improvidently submitted and that it should be...

Getting Out of the National Practitioner Data Bank, Part I

Posted on January 16, 2009
Once a physician or other health care provider is reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, he or she is normally there for life. It is extremely difficult to get out. Some physicians have remarked that it is like having a "record," which like in the criminal context can result...

15 Ways to Eliminate ?Trust?In Health Care Organizations.

Posted on January 13, 2009
Trust" can be defined as confidence in the integrity, ability, character and truth of a person or thing. It is a dangerous commodity in a health care setting. Remember as the poet said, As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust makes trust...

Colorado Denies Immunity from Physician Peer Review

Posted on January 07, 2009
In Peper v. St. Mary?s Hospital and Medical Center, No. 07CA2491, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that a Colorado hospital and medical stafff physicians who revoked the plaintiff?s hospital privileges without notice or a hearing failed to establish grounds for immunity under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of...

Pfizer's "Double Blind" Bextra Bind -The Value of Clinical Data

Posted on December 30, 2008
Shortly before Christmas a Santa Clara County, California jury entered a $38 Million Dollar Judgment Against Pfizer, Inc. for allegedly stealing clinical data from the Ischemia Research and Education Foundation ("IREF"), concerning its acute arthritic pain drug, Bextra...

MT. Constitution Protects Doctor Assisted Suicide

Posted on December 24, 2008
The United States Supreme Court has thus far declined to find a constitutional right to doctor assisted suicide under either the Due Process Clause (Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997)) or under the Equal Protection Clause (Vacco v. Quill, 521 U...

Minn. Court Holds Medical Battery Does Not Require Expert Affidavit.

Posted on December 15, 2008
Most states have some form of statute or common law obligation that requires a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case to obtain an opinion or affidavit from a qualified physician that the conduct of a defendant physician was outside the standard of care...

Federal Appeals Court "Clocks" Nebraska Doc On Board's Letter of Concern

Posted on December 09, 2008
The Eigth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff physician in Kloch v. Kohl, No. 07-2120 ( 8th Cir.2008). Dr. Kloch received a Letter of Concern from the Nebraska Board of Medicine and Surgery, which was placed in his public file...

MONTANA MEDICAL EXAMINERS EXCULPATED

Posted on November 18, 2008
In Nelson v. State of Montana, No. 05-694, the Montana Supreme Court fractured over the liability of the Montana Board of Medical Examiners for negligent licensing of Dr. Thomas Stephenson, but the majority excused the board from culpability. In November of 1999, Dr...

Jesse?s Brain

Posted on October 20, 2008
21 year old Jesse Adams died of a heart condition shortly after turning 21. During a renewal of his driver?s license he signed a card indicating his intent to make an anatomical gift of his body organs. Meanwhile back at the ranch Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI), a Maryland non-profit...

FEDERAL COURT IN CALIFORNIA REFUSES TO DISMISS ANTITRUST AND STATE LAW CLAIMS AGAINST HCA HOSPITAL AFFILIATES FOR CHANGING COVERAGE RULES TO EXCLUDE PHYSICIAN.

Posted on October 13, 2008
The magistrate Judge in Fox v. William Piche et al.,, No. C08-1098 RS (D.C. N.Cal., San Jose Div. 2008) refused to dismiss antitrust and some state court actions brought by a critical care pediatrician against a number of officers of HCA Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, California...

Book Review: Public Health law: Power, Duty Restraint, Lawrence O. Gostin; University of California Press (Revised and expanded Second edition (2008).

Posted on October 02, 2008
The title, Public Health Law smacks of the kind of mind numbing subject of old textbooks one runs across occasionally in used book sales at public libraries or the free book box outside of used book stores. This book is far different. It is an intelligently imagined overview of the...

Federal Tort Claims Act: Switched at birth in '46, To Late To Complain Now.

Posted on September 23, 2008
Rowena Madrigan and Beverly Bowker claimed that they were wrongfully switched at birth. They and Ms. Bowker's real father, Michael Ryan sued the United Stated under the Federal Tort Claims Act for negligence at Sanding Rock Hospital in Ft. Yates, North Dakota, in sending Ms...

Cal. Appeals Court Holds Medical Staff Retroactive Board Certification Rule Unfair

Posted on September 23, 2008
Dr. Sohail Nassim held provisional medical staff privileges in internal medicine and nephrology at Los Robles Regional Medical Center near Los Angles, California. He joined the medical staff of Los Robles in 2001. After he arrived, the hospital's internal medicine department changed the qualification rules to limit membership to those...

Are Medical Records Produced in Litigation In the Public Realm Thereafter?

Posted on September 19, 2008
In Hageman v. Southwest Gen. Health Ctr, Slip Opinion No. 2008-Ohio-3343, (July, 2008) the Ohio Supreme Court held that an attorney who obtained medical records of an opposing party in litigation may be held liable for the subsequent disclosure of those documents outside of the litigation, when the documents had...

Physician Recruitment: Recruited Doc Bites Group in Arkansas.

Posted on September 10, 2008
Many physician recruitment efforts are three party arrangements where a physician group either solicits a hospital to help support a newly recruited physician or a hospital solicits a group as a place to practice for a new physician recruited by the hospital...

California Nixes Medical Discrimination By Religous Doctors.

Posted on August 19, 2008
The California Supreme Court has ruled that physicians may not discriminate and withhold non-emergency medical care based upon their religious beliefs in violation of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by businesses based on sexual orientation...

Supreme Court Holds Arbitration Agreement Under F.A.A.Cannot Be Reviewed For Erroneous Conclusion of Law

Posted on August 11, 2008
There is a growing tendency to incorporate mandatory arbitration clauses in employment and other agreements as an alternative mechanism to resolve disputes. Some arbitration agreements go so far as to self define the scope of judicial review of an arbitrator?s decision...

PHYSICIAN COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENTS:?LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS?? Part II of II

Posted on August 07, 2008
Recently, a national chain hospital located in a highly competitive market in Los Angeles, California used a home office prepared CNA developed in another state to attract an invasive cardiologist to move to L.A. and start up a practice. The corporate recruiter announced that he had given the physician a...

Physician Community Needs Assessments:?Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics??Part I of II.

Posted on August 06, 2008
The line between a hospital?s medical staff competitive development activities and its community medical support endeavors is hazy, but one that has important regulatory and legal implications. The luring of certain physician specialists to a hospital?s market is often a key component in the competitive strategic plan of the hospital,...

"Arbitrition"* In Healthcare Disputes.

Posted on May 26, 2008
In 1991, the United States Supreme Court gave strong impetus to the enforcement of arbitration agreements in employment contracts when it held that unequal bargaining power between employers and employees was an insufficient reason to hold that arbitration contracts are never enforceable in the employment context...

FDA Review to ?Pre-Empt? State Pharmaceutical Litigation?

Posted on April 10, 2008
The United States Supreme Court will soon decide whether state tort actions against drug companies will be "pre-empted" by the FDA?s pre-market regulation of new drug products. The case, Wyeth v. Levine, arose out of a Vermont action by a musician, Diane Levine, who was injected with Wyeth?s anti-nausea drug,...

AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON!

Posted on April 08, 2008
Wilcox Memorial Hospital in Kauai, Hawaii announced last month that a relative of a patient arrived at Wilcox with a horse to cheer up a patient at the hospital. The visitors reached the lobby where the front desk personnel had retired for the evening...

NEGLIGENT DISCHARGE?

Posted on April 04, 2008
The Indiana Court of Appeals, in McSwane v. Bloomington Hospital and Healthcare System, Ind. App. ct.,No 53A04-075-cv-243 (March 12, 2008) reversed a summary judgment granted in favor of Bloomington Hospital in a claim, that the hospital negligently discharged Malia Vandenneede into the custody of her estranged husband, Monty Vandeneede, following...

TAX COURT: NO CHARITABLE DEDUCTION FOR MEDICAL PRACTICE ?GOOD WILL?

Posted on March 21, 2008
Medical Practice ?good will? is one of those amorphous concepts like pornography that is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it. Not infrequently ?good will? is deemed the largest component in the appraised value of a medical practice. In many medical practices the actual hard assets...

TEXAS COURT UPHOLDS HOSPITAL CEO NON-COMPETE

Posted on March 12, 2008
In Teel v. Hospital Partners of America, CA No. H-06-3991, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ? Houston Division, entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant finding as a matter of law that Mr. Teel, a former CEO of Twelve Oaks, an HPA hospital in...

MONTANA COURT MUZZLES BARKING RADIOLOGIST

Posted on March 04, 2008
In St. James Healthcare v. Cole, Mont., No. DA 07-0084, 2/12/08. the Montana Supreme Court upheld an injunction that St. James Healthcare obtained against its former exclusive contractor for radiologist services., Dr. Jesse A. Cole. Dr. Cole allegedly made harassing and threatening phone calls to a radiologist a Boston University...

TEXAS & UTAH SPLIT ON EXPERT TESTIMONY REQUIREMENT IN HEALTH CASES.

Posted on March 03, 2008
Two recent cases in Texas and Utah dealing with the requirement of expert testimony in health cases underscore the principal that ?law is common sense as amended by the legislature. The Utah Supreme Court in Bowman v. Michael A Kalm, M.D., determined that, while an expert witness is generally required...

Supreme Court Pre-empts State Medical Device Litigation.

Posted on February 23, 2008
. The U.S. Supreme Court issued its long awaited opinion in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. ____U.S.___ (2008) as to whether the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 passed by Congress to provide federal oversight for medical devices pre-empted state product liability tort actions...

Physician Recruitment Mutual Mistake

Posted on February 20, 2008
This is an extension to our previous post on Physician Recruitment Fraud (January 24, 2007). There is more and more litigation surfacing between hospitals and recruited physicians when hospitals lure physicians into a new startup practice in their market and the physician is unable to sustain a viable practice in...

CAN HOSPITAL DECLOAK ANONYMOUS CRITIC?

Posted on January 30, 2008
Last month a Texas Court of Appeals granted a limited mandamus to an anonymous blogger who was frequently critical of Paris (Texas) Regional Medical Center (PRMC"), a subsidiary of a hospital system known as Essent. PMRC filed suit earlier in the year against the anonymous blogger who goes by the...