10 recent hospital lawsuits, settlements
From Steward Health Care suing its former CEO to an AdventHealth hospital suing BCBS Kansas City over clinical validation audits, here are 10 lawsuits, settlements and legal developments involving hospitals that Becker’s has reported since June 18:
1. Dallas-based Steward Health Care filed a lawsuit in bankruptcy court against its former chairman and CEO, Ralph de la Torre, MD, and other top system executives, claiming they conducted insider transactions that drained Steward’s assets and contributed to financial collapse.
2. New Jersey’s high court unanimously rejected arguments brought forth by more than a dozen hospitals that charity care is an unconstitutional taking of private property without just compensation.
3. An appellate court upheld a $207.6 million verdict against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, affirming a lower court’s finding that a delayed cesarean section caused a child to be born with cerebral palsy and severe neurodevelopmental impairments, according to court documents.
4. AdventHealth’s Shawnee Mission Medical Center is suing Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, alleging the insurer improperly withheld more than $2 million in payments by denying hundreds of valid medical diagnoses submitted by the hospital’s physicians.
5. Megan Ryan, the former CEO of Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y., plans to file a lawsuit against the hospital’s parent company, alleging wrongful termination.
6. A division of HCA Healthcare reached settlements with nine families over lawsuits alleging a former NICU nurse injured several infants.
7. A jury awarded $27.5 million to the former chief nursing officer of St. Mary Medical Center Long Beach (Calif.) in a retaliation lawsuit.
8. Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth prevailed in a lawsuit with Colorado’s Medicaid agency over provider fee money.
9. An Ohio judge denied a former physician’s attempt to bring his defamation lawsuit against Columbus-based Mount Carmel Health System to a jury trial.
10. The University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore sued Maryland Physicians Care — a Medicaid managed care organization — seeking to recover more than $15 million for services allegedly provided to over 15,000 patients.